


conduit for the sun

by jdwn



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Detective Agency, Mafia AU, Magic but not really magic, Multi, Necromancy, but not everyone is mafia, daichi as head of karasuno, everyone has a different power, inspired by bsd but more supernatural
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:54:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 29,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26922460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdwn/pseuds/jdwn
Summary: Kageyama, a fresh faced college student who keeps changing his major and is warming the bench on his volleyball team, runs into a piece of the sun in the bathroom of a grocery store. Hinata is a new member of the Karasuno Detective Agency, who is half-trying to control his usual power, and half-trying to avoid being kidnapped.The Karasuno Detective Agency is attempting to keep Sendai a normal, safe place. There's no people with powers running around, no bombs hidden in major train stations, and certainly no strange object that has the potential to destroy all of Japan. Everything is alright, with the occasional bump in the road. One day, the bump turns into a shard of glass, pointed right at the tire of the Karasuno Detective Agency.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	1. the sun never sinks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kageyama tries to get milk at the store, and runs into a boy bursting with light.

Kageyama has a pressing issue. His entire livelihood depended on his choice, and he wasn’t sure which option he should choose. The tiny grocery store at the corner of his campus only had one carton of milk left, meaning anyone could walk over and take it. That would mean Kageyama had to leave this store, walk all the way out of his campus, and get milk at the store across the highway.

On any other day, Kageyama would dash over the door and just grab the milk. But today, he took a nap after his first class, and missed his second class. That threw off his whole schedule - during his first class, he usually drinks a lot of water out of habit, and goes to the restroom after that class. Instead, he went straight to his dorm and slept, which meant his full bladder was forgotten. Until now.

His eyes dart to the restrooms just across the aisle from the refrigerators, before glancing back to the last carton of milk. _Damn these small grocery stores_ , Kageyama curses under his breath, _they can’t even keep the stock full during the week_.

Kageyama really, really, wanted that milk. He ran out two days ago - a tortuous two days. He didn’t want to go off campus either, since he hadn’t gotten his driver’s license. Not like he would ever get his driver’s license, anyways, since he failed twice and shame kept him from practicing again. The bus was too expensive these days, and he didn’t have time to walk all the way past the highway.

“Do you need help?” A kind voice asked - the type of ‘kind voice’ that people who worked in customer service were forced to make.

“Er, um, no.” Kageyama rushed out before walking past the employee. _God, that was awkward_. His feet led him toward the fridge with the last milk carton - it wasn’t even the good brand of milk, just some off brand, generic milk. As he grabbed the milk, he despaired at how he would have to wait in the single checkout line, awkwardly converse with the cashier, and then walk all the way back to his dorm before going to the restroom.

Or, he could just take the milk into the restroom. The thought popped into his head, and at first, he thought it was genius. Then he realized he would look stupid if he brought a milk carton into the bathroom. There weren’t many customers in the store, though, and he doubted there would be a lot of people in the restroom.

 _Okay, you’ve convinced me_ , Kageyama told himself, clutching the carton to his chest. A win-win situation - he got his milk, and he wouldn’t almost piss himself trying to get home.

Everything was riding smoothly. Sure, there were a few intimidating guys standing in the doorway of the restroom with too-bulky jackets, but they paid no attention to Kageyama. Kageyama even got to choose one of the stalls, so he didn’t have to awkwardly hold the carton while he peed.

The bulky guys were still there when Kageyama started to wash his hands, which was strange, but he’d seen stranger things on campus.

“Oi, shrimp.” Kageyama jumped at the booming voice, turning around to face whoever was speaking.

The insult wasn’t directed at Kageyama, but rather, a small red-head who strolled into the restroom with a panicked look on his face. Kageyama turned back to the sink, reaching for the paper towels.

There was a foreign click sound. As Kageyama readjusted the carton of milk in his arms, tossing the paper towel into the trash, he slowly spun around to see the red-head with a gun pressed to his forehead.

The carton of milk dropped to the floor, and another gun was raised to Kageyama. The guns were surprising, of course, but so was the fact that the little red-head was now glowing. A white light emitted from his frame, and the red-head groaned, raising his hands in surrender.

“Now’s not a good time,” He pleaded as the light grew brighter. “I don’t want to hurt you guys, or anyone in this store, so it’s best if you all let me leave before something happens.” There wasn’t any threat in the short boy’s voice, only exasperation.

 _How old is this dude, and why was he handling this so well?_ Kageyama questioned, distracting himself from the thought of _oh my god, there’s a gun pointed at me am I going to die I’m too young for this -_

The bulky guy grunted - now Kageyama knew why the group had those large jackets. “You’re our target, shrimp.”

Milk was now pooling at Kageyama’s feet, and he couldn’t help but feel disappointed that the last carton of milk was gone. He supposed it didn’t matter anymore, because there was a good chance of him being killed in a few moments. Instead of yelling for help, Kageyama stood perfectly still and prayed that he wouldn’t accidentally aggravate one of the burly men.

The light around the boy’s frame only grew stronger, and he glanced toward Kageyama. “Sorry about this,” He said in his direction.

Kageyama tensed at the ominous apology, but it wasn’t directed toward him specifically. The boy rushed toward Kageyama, the light nearly blinding him. Kageyama closed his eyes out of instinct, flinching away from the heat. But pain never came, even though a scream elicited from _somebody_.

A gunshot fired, and Kageyama snapped his eyes open, looking down at his body. Nothing was there - he _hadn’t_ died yet, and boy, was that a miracle. The person who’d held the gun to his head was now crumpled on the floor, his right arm scarred with a dozen scratches that weren’t bleeding. Instead, the scratches were a void of red, orange, and yellow all blending together.

Kageyama wasn’t majoring in anything health related, but he knew whatever _that_ was, wasn’t normal. He took a step away from the body, his back pressing against the cool bathroom wall. The temperature of the room had risen, although he couldn’t tell how much.

“Don’t move, boy!” Another one of the hitmen growled, dual-wielding pistols and pointing them at the two boys. Kageyama froze as he realized the shot hadn’t just fired - it hit the shorter boy right in the gut.

The boy was still glowing, the light increasing by the moment. He clutched his side with a groaned, hands coming away bloodied. “Just spare him, and I’ll come with you.” The red-head bowed slightly in submission, after darting his eyes towards Kageyama. Run, his eyes said.

The lights overhead seemed to flicker as the rest of the hitmen lowered their guns after a nod from the main guy, who kept both of his guns pointed at them. He took a step toward the red-head, the barrel pressed right between his eyes.

Kageyama normally liked to stay out of trouble. The less conflict there was, the better. But, he supposed, this situation was different. The main hitman took his attention off of Kageyama right when the short boy told him that he would come with him, leaving Kageyama a lot more time to move. Even though there were three other hitmen in the room, their attention was also on the other boy.

About five feet from the bleeding red-head, was an emergency exit. Kageyama always thought it was dumb to have an exit in the restroom, but for once, he was glad whoever designed the store was an imbecile. His plan, made in a few precarious moments, had a fifty percent chance of success. He could distract the hitmen while the other boy escaped, because they looked like they weren’t the type to cause an unnecessary mess killing someone. On the other hand, he could be completely wrong, and be shot as soon as he took a step forward.

 _How did my trip to the restroom turn into a life-or-death mission?_ Kageyama almost grumbled under his breath. Playing hero wasn’t as fun as he thought it would be.

He took a step forward, hand placed behind his head. “Um, can we -”

Before he could get another word out, something was shoved against his back, sending him stumbling into the other boy. He knocked into the boy, and thought, if he wasn’t going to die from gunshots, he was going to die from _whatever_ the boy in front of him was.

They both crashed to the ground, and time seemed to slow down. Kageyama saw the boy’s eyes clearly. They widened, brown and sparkling with interest. Kageyama scoffed in his head as his back hit the ground. He was going to die with this high schooler on top of him, all because he felt some strange heroic pull toward him.

But then something strange happened, even stranger than dying with a high schooler from gunshot wounds inflicted by hitmen. The light emitting from the smaller boy soared out of his body, exiting his body in a giant flash that blinded Kageyama momentarily. The light turned from white, to a fiery red before wisping away into the air. It was oddly beautiful, like a candle being blown out.

Then the gunshots started, and it wasn’t so beautiful. The hitmen seemed to be blinded by the light for longer than Kageyama, because they shot aimlessly around the room. As he lifted his head to see if anyone was aiming at him, the boy on top of him spread his body across his torso, slamming his head back into the ground. _Was he shielding me?_

The boy’s body flinched as a shot hit him. Kageyama didn’t care who the boy in front of him was, or what he was - nobody would sacrifice their life for him. It wasn’t even because he cared for this high schooler, Kageyama just hated when people tried to help him. Also the blood leaking onto his own shirt was a concerning amount, and he didn’t want a person to die on top of him

Kageyama shoved the boy off of him, latching onto his arm before he could slump forward. In a flash, with speed Kageyama didn’t know he possessed, he yanked the shorter boy up to his feet and shouldered the emergency exit door open. Not bothering to check if the other boy could actually run, Kageyama burst into a sprint, keeping a strong grip on his arm. Soon, he ducked into a place between the Fine Arts building and an oddly placed dorm, releasing his grip with a sound of disgust. There was blood dripping down his arm, but it wasn’t his.

The boy collapsed to the ground when Kageyama peeked around the corner, hoping that none of the hitmen had followed them. He doubted that they would be dumb enough to run around campus with their guns out.

Right as the boy groaned in pain. Kageyama realized _oh_ , there’s this little high schooler bleeding out right in front of me.

“Dumbass!” Kageyama shouted, sinking to his knees in front of the boy. There were an array of shots along his chest, barely visible against the black of his jacket. “You - you fucking dumbass - you weren’t supposed to -” Kageyama choked out, because _I don’t want to see someone die today!_

Brown eyes peered up at Kageyama, filled with curiosity. “What are you?”

Kageyama scoffed despite himself. “What are you? You know what, don’t answer that. I’m calling an ambulance.” He couldn’t help when his voice shook as he took out his phone. He doubted that this small boy would survive being shot multiple times, no matter how odd his glowy-thing was. “I think the nurse’s office is close-by, can you -”

The phone was knocked to the ground with a growl. “Are you stupid?” The boy was _glowing_ again, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. “I’ll be fine. Tell me who you belong to. Shiratorizawa? I’ve never met someone from Shiratorizawa!” His voice brightened along with his frame, and Kageyama wondered if this was an elaborate dream, and if he was still napping in his dorm. “Oh, I’m Hinata Shouyou, by the way. I guess I should thank you for saving me, but I would have been fine by myself.”

“You - you were being shot at!” Kageyama sat back, watching as the wounds on his chest slowly were engulfed by light. “What are you doing?”

Hinata glanced down at his chest. Then he glanced back up, with wide eyes. “ _Shit_. You weren’t supposed to see that.” The glowing stopped immediately, and all of the gunshot wounds were gone. Just like that, engulfed by that strange light and fixed. “Oh God. You - you were able to - what the…” He trailed off.

“I don’t know what the fuck that was, and I don’t know what a Shiratorizawa is.” Kageyama snarled, scooting away from Hinata. He reached out to snatch his phone, to call the cops, to call anyone.

The phone was already gone, in Hinata’s hands. Hinata shot up, reaching toward his back pocket. “Dachi’s going to _kill_ me. No, Suga too - Tsukishima’s going to make fun of me.” Hinata whined, tugging a pistol out of his pocket. “I’m sorry!”

Before Kageyama could panic, the butt of the gun knocked against the side of his temple.

______________

The view from the Karasuno Office was one of Suga’s favorites. It wasn’t a tall building, only a five story building in the middle of the city. But it was on a corner of a main street, overlooking the traffic downtown. In the day, the sun would hit the reflection of the cars as they stopped at the red light, and Suga could see right into the driver’s seat. He would read their expressions and make up stories about how their day was going. Occasionally a group of people would walk past the building and Suga would pretend that he knew what they were talking about. At night, he admired the neon sign from the barber shop across the street as it flickered off, and the street lamps flickered on. Each person in the apartments on the other side of the street had a schedule of when their lights would be on and off. Eventually, Suga spent so much time observing the lights, that he remembered the times they shut off.

The view from the Karasuno Office made Suga feel connected to the city. He felt the thrum of its life in his veins, and there was very little that he loved more.

Today, there weren't a lot of drivers out. Suga didn’t mind - looking out the window of his office calmed him anyway, and God knew that he needed it.

Dachi, the head of Karasuno Agency, sent their newbie, Hinata, out to scout the nearest college campus for any signs of activity. Normally, they would have sent Yamaguchi and Tsukishima out, as they were the more experienced scouts. But Daichi insisted that Hinata needed the experience.

It was four hours later, and there hadn’t been a single peep from Hinata. Suga cursed the fluffy-haired boy, turning away from the window. Knowing the newbie, he’d probably gotten lost on his way to the college. Making him do a scout alone was a horrible idea - it wasn’t as if Hinata was the most observant, so even if there were any activity right in front of him, he wouldn’t notice it. Suga couldn’t exactly blame him - he was still a teen, and he only joined the Agency a month ago after finding out about his power.

Suga pressed a palm against his forehead, a headache forming at the thought of Hinata’s power. It was a strange, ambiguous thing that needed to be under control. Just in the short month he’s been at the Agency, he’s burnt a cubicle down and exploded Noya’s wine cabinet. Not to mention, he nearly blinded Kiyoko when he tried to heal one of his cuts with a burst of light. He had no idea how he was going to get Hinata under control, but it wasn’t like Suga was going to kick the boy out.

The Karasuno Agency was a bit of a refuge for the unusual. Almost everyone at the Agency had a strange background, or a strange power. The whole reason it was created was as a way to help the people in the city, so it made sense that the people who worked in the Agency were the strange ones.

A knock sounded at the door, and Suga straightened. “Yes?”

The door swung open, revealing a frantic Asahi. Well, Asahi was almost always frantic, even at the slightest of things. The ‘ace’ as the Agency called him, held the office together. “Hinata’s back.”

Suga scowled. “Finally.” He pulled himself away from the window and out into the hallway, Asahi followed with wide eyes behind him. “Did he find anything?”

“He…” Asahi started, eyes averting down. “He brought someone back.”

Suga quickened his pace, turning the corner toward the lobby. “Who? Someone from Aoba Johsai or Shiratorizawa?” At the mention of the two names, Suga’s hand shifted toward his belt. “Is Daichi still at that meeting?”

“Yes, I think so - and it’s not somebody from a group. I think he’s a civilian.” Asahi muttered, gesturing for Suga to take his hand off of his gun.

The doors to the lobby burst open, and Suga’s head spun at the sight of Hinata sitting next to a teenage boy, an unconscious one at that. Hinata shot up at the sight of Suga, bowing deeply. “I’m so sorry, Suga! He tried to save me from these -”

“Asahi, get Kiyoko down here.” Suga said sharply, eyes trained on Hinata. “Hinata...Who is this?”

Hinata clasped his hands together, and Suga noticed the copious amount of blood on his shirt. “Well, he didn’t tell me his name, but he doesn’t know who Shiratorizawa are, so I assumed that he was okay. I went into a store at the college, and these huge guys cornered me in the bathroom, telling me that I was their target. This guy was there too, and they were about to kidnap me when he tried to help me escape.” Hinata straightened, his eyes brightening. “I was about to overuse my power, and I lost control of it, but he fell on top of me and my power _stopped_. I could barely feel my power - it was like it was muted!”

Suga was speechless for a moment. There were people after Hinata, and he met another person with a power? Or, something else triggered Hinata’s power to stop? He shook his head, taking a step toward Hinata. “Who’s blood is this? And is he injured?”

“It’s mine - but I’m okay, my power decided to play along with me to heal this time.” Suga winced at the memory of when Hinata last tried to heal himself. “And I _think_ he’s fine. He doesn’t have any bullet wounds and he wasn’t affected by my power. Well, I had to hit him with my pistol to knock him out.” Hinata admitted sheepishly.

The unconscious boy suddenly twitched, eyes fluttering open. Hinata jumped a whole foot back, shrinking behind Suga. His black hair barely covered the vicious bruise that was forming on his temple - Suga hoped that Kiyoko would arrive soon, to check if he had any major damage.

He sat up, squinting around the lobby. “Who…”

Suga jumped into action. Daichi wasn’t here, so he wasn’t exactly sure how he should treat a person with questionable abilities. “I’m Sugawara, and you’re at the Karasuno Agency right now.” Suga glanced over his shoulder at Hinata. “I’m sorry about this kid here, he just told me about the trouble he caused you. I know what you witnessed was strange, but I can answer any questions.” Most of them, anyway. Suga wasn’t sure if Daichi would want Ukai to come and wipe his memory - and from Hinata’s description, it sounded like he himself has a power.

The boy blinked, peering at Hinata with a scowl. “Kageyama Tobio.” He averted his eyes back to Suga. “What the hell is he?”

“Ah. A perfectly normal question.” Suga patted Hinata on the head, grinning at Kageyama. “Hinata, along with a few other people here, has a power. Sort of like the stuff on television.”

Kageyama blinked again. “Bullshit.”

Suga sighed. He should be used to the outright denial, but it got a little aggravating after a couple of times. “Very few people have powers, and if they do, they’re obligated to keep it a secret. Some people go on with their normal lives, but some people use their powers. Don’t try to deny it again,” Suga added sharply when Kageyama opened his mouth, “You’ve seen Hinata use his power, so there's no point.”

Before Kageyama could respond, the door to the lobby burst open again. _They would need to replace it again if everyone kept bursting in like this_. Kiyoko, followed by Asahi and an eager Noya walked in. Kiyoko was Karasuno’s resident healer - she didn’t have a power, but she had quite a talent for healing wounds. Everyone in the Agency had been saved by her talents before, so she was a valuable piece.

Noya, the short and eager man who followed Kiyoko and Asahi, was known as the Guardian of Karasuno. He had the ability to shield the Agency from unwanted people, and on the battlefield, he could easily protect the entire group with his power. It was too bad that he was the excitable type, always raring for a fight.

“Oi, don’t go pouncing around the newcomer, Noya.” Suga snapped, waving the irritable ball of energy away. He was like Hinata, in that they never lost energy. It was exhausting to be around them sometimes. “Kageyama, this is Kiyoko. She’s our doctor, so stop squirming.”

Kageyama was overwhelmed with the amount of people around, and right after waking up from being knocked out, too. Kiyoko cautiously took a step toward Kageyama, hand brushing against the bruise forming on his head. Kageyama blushed fiercely. Suga held back a laugh as he remembered the first time he saw Kiyoko too - she was one of the most beautiful people around, with her silky black hair and big, round eyes.

“Do you feel dizzy or lightheaded?” Kiyoko’s soft voice easily dominated Noya’s loud whispers toward Hinata, asking who this was.

Kageyama shook his head, before turning to glare at Hinata. “I would be fine if this _idiot_ hadn’t hit me in the head. Seriously, I would have followed you if you didn’t, there was no need to -”

“Alright, anyways.” Suga cut in, stepping in between the two. “I have a few questions for Kageyama, so if everyone could leave - no, you stay, Hinata.” Suga yanked Hinata back by the collar of his bloodied shirt. Hinata whined as Suga plopped him into the chair next to Kageyama. They both immediately scooted away from each other.

The rest of the Agency evacuated the room, although Noya a little more slowly than the others. He scampered off as soon as Suga sent a glare in his direction.

Suga pressed a palm to his forehead. He had not one, but two major problems on his hands. One, Hinata brought back a civilian - except he wasn’t actually sure if he had a power. Kageyama didn’t look all too enthused to be here, either. Two, Hinata was being tracked by someone - he had a decent idea of who, but didn’t want to jump to conclusion, especially during this turmoil. Hinata could potentially be more powerful than the rest of the agency, but he couldn’t control himself, which made him an interesting target.

“Where’s Daichi?” Hinata asked, pulling on the short sleeves of his too-large black shirt.

“He’s at a meeting with Takeda, and probably won’t be back until sunset.” Suga groaned, pulling a chair opposite to Kageyama and Hinata. “But it’s fine - I’m still the co-head, so he won’t be too pissed at me for handling this alone.” Hopefully. “Hinata, what did these men look like? From any group we know?”

Hinata tilted his head back against the wall, his orange hair squishing on the wall. “They were all wearing the same thing, black jackets and those green cargo pants. Standard hitmen stuff. There were, like, five of them?” Hinata looked down at his hands, counting on his fingers. “Yeah, five. I got one of them, too. He was about to shoot Mr. Straight Face over there, so I took his arm out.”

Suga closed his eyes. “Hinata, we went over using your power on scouts. Even if you’re in danger, you can’t go overboard. Now, we’re going to have some random hitmen after us for revenge.”

“But _I_ wasn’t in danger. Kageyama was.”

He opened his eyes to see Hinata, tilting his head in confusion. “Well, I suppose that’s true.” Damnit. From the moment Suga met Hinata, he knew that he had little common sense, so he probably thought that breaking another person’s arm was the only way to escape a hostage situation. Now that Hinata had people searching for him, Suga needed to give him a class on how to avoid being kidnapped, and the whole hostage ordeal. The thought of trying to make Hinata sit down and listen to him talk gave him a headache.

“Are you dumb? You’re the one who was in danger, they weren’t after me.” Kageyama scowled. “Plus, you looked like you were going to puke the entire time they had a gun to your head.”

Hinata guffawed. “That’s - that’s just a side effect of using my power! Not that you would know.”

“Wait, Hinata. Didn’t you say that once he jumped on you, that your power was suppressed?” Suga held up a hand to keep them from talking over each other, dragging himself out of his thoughts.

“Well, yeah.” Hinata matched Kageyama’s scowl. “It doesn’t mean anything. You know how it fluctuates.”

Suga pursed his lips before standing up. “Kageyama, are you willing to try something?” Kageyama’s eyes widened a fraction as he nodded. “You can go home after this if it doesn’t work, so no worries.”

“If it does?” Kageyama questioned, standing up beside Suga.

He shrugged with a smile. “We’ll see.” Suga activated his power, the familiar feelings of weightlessness lifting him into the air. He could never really get used to the lightness of his bones, the way his organs shifted ever so slightly when he changed the direction of his gravity. Hinata looked up at him with bright eyes - he was envious of how Suga could control his power so easily.

Kageyama stared with wide eyes as Suga floated into the air, stopping just before his head hit the roof of the lobby. Suga reached out with a hand, beckoning Kageyama to take it. Right as Kageyama’s hand brushed against the other’s fingertips, Suga collapsed right out of the air, crashing to the ground with a thump.

Hinata jumped out of his seat, while Kageyama jumped back, observing his hands. Suga groaned, turning onto his back. “It worked.”

“It worked.” Kageyama echoed, staring hard at his fingertips before shoving them into his pockets. “I’m sorry, I had no idea…”

Suga climbed to his feet, laughing. “That was the point of the test. You passed, so no worries.” He brushed his hands against his shirt, ruffling Hinata’s hair, who ran over the second Suga tumbled out of the air. “As for leaving, you can go for now. I hope to see you soon. Tomorrow, maybe?”

Kageyama squinted at the silver-haired boy. “How do you know I’m not going to run around and cause a ruckus with my power?” He wasn’t, but he was curious as to how Suga already had so much trust in him.

“You live in the dorms on campus, and you’ve changed your major like five times. You live in dorm B, and are in room nine.” Suga peered at him, crossing his arms. “Correct?”

“But - eh - how?” Kageyama sputtered, taking a step back.

Suga laughed again. “Asahi has a habit of researching everyone who steps foot into the office.” Suga tapped on his ear, where a discreet silver earpiece was. It was pure coincidence that he had it on at that moment - Asahi and him were only testing the earpiece out moments eariler. “We’re not just about powers, Kageyama. You better come tomorrow, or else the head’s going to kick my ass for letting you get away.” With a light hearted grin, Suga pushed Kageyama out of the lobby, and into the city.

Hinata pouted when Suga turned back to him. “ _He’s_ going to join Karasuno? He’s so annoying - you know, the first thing he said to me was ‘dumbass’? I don’t think I could ever work with him.”

“You said the same thing about Tsukishima, plus you deserved to be called a dumbass.” Suga scolded, letting his arms fall to his side. “And if he decides to join, which is all up to him, you two will be a great pair.” When he noticed Hinata’s scowl, he cuffed him on the head. “You can’t control your power - Kageyama could be that balance.”

______________

The moon was shrouded by clouds when Tsukishima stepped out of the cab. It’s light tried to shine through the dark clouds over the city, but could only muster a weak glow. Only the street lamps down the deserted street gave off any usable light.

“Aren’t you hot with that jacket on?” Tsukishima asked nonchalantly as Yamaguchi followed him out of the cab, shutting the door with a wave toward the driver.

Yamaguchi adjusted the black leather jacket that fit closely to his body. From far away, the boy looked like someone dangerous. The spikes on the collar of his jacket and the multiple chain accessories was enough to make people cross the street when they saw his figure. But up close, his eyes were always upturned in a smile, and if anyone bothered to talk to him, he had one of the kindest voices around.

“I’m alright.” Yamaguchi eyed the butterfly knife that Tsukishima was swingin around his hand with disinterest. “Where to, Tsukki?”

Tsukishima suppressed a groan at the nickname. “This way.”

The two took off, away from the light of the street lamp and toward the forest. There were no stars to guide them, and using a flashlight would give away their cover. Tsukishima kept a hold on Yamaguchi’s arm, knowing that despite his hyperaware senses, he had a tendency to trip in the dark.

“It’s closeby.” Yamaguchi whispered, closing his eyes for a brief moment. Tsukishima frowned at his worried state, but didn’t say anything. If Yamaguchi actually sensed danger, he would have told Tsukishima. He just got anxious on scouts, and that was the main reason Tsukishima was paired with Yamaguchi as a scout for Karasuno. The taller of the two wasn’t the type to be a scout - he was more of a combat type, but apparently Yamaguchi needed him on every mission. It was mainly due to him being easily frightened, but also because Tsukishima was handy while trying to escape something.

And it wasn’t like Daichi would allow Tsukishima to go out alone - he didn’t have a power, and didn’t have the experience of the others at Karasuno. If anything, Yamaguchi was the main person of the pair. He had the power of precognition, to an extent. If someone were to take a shot at them right now, Yamaguchi could warn him five seconds before it could happen. It was definitely useful, but sometimes he had false warnings, or missed a warning all together.

Soon, they arrived at a crumbled house in the middle of the forest. As Daichi instructed, they weren’t allowed to engage in combat - only check around the house for any activity. This particular house was known for being a common meet up place for people who didn’t want to be caught meeting up. Suga told Tsukishima and Yamaguchi multiple stories about how him and Daichi found people from different groups conspiring together. Most of the time, Suga and Daichi would check over the house, but they decided that the two newbies were ready to take over the position as scouts from the two heads.

 _We’ve been at this Agency for four months_ , Tsukishima thought, _It’s about time._

“Did you hear about the new recruit? Hinata told me that he’s quiet and snappy like you, so maybe you’ll get along.” Yamaguchi grinned, taking his mind off of what could potentially be in the house before them.

Tsukishima scoffed. “He’s not recruited yet. Even if he does have an ability, it doesn’t mean he’ll be induced immediately. There’s other steps.” They would have to get him registered, which is a hellish process, see if his power is even usable for the team, and have to do that stupid ‘test of courage’ that Daichi lived by. He scowled at the thought of it.

“Apparently he has the power to mute others’ powers. Isn’t that cool?” Yamaguchi gushed, pulling at the sleeves of his jacket. “I heard Suga wants to pair him with Hinata, since his power goes overboard often.”

“Whatever. Like that will work anyways - it’s impossible to work with Hinata.” Tsukishima frowned at the thought of the energetic annoyance that was Hinata. When Hinata first joined the Agency, he was assigned to scout with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi. He was so loud and disturbing, he scared away any chance of finding activity. Not to mention, he nearly burned down one of the offices in excitement.

 _If I had a power like that, I would be a lot more careful with it._ Tsukishima brushed off the thought, not letting the jealousy get to him. Ever since they’ve joined the Agency, Tsukishima felt a bit out of place with all these people who had powers, or at least knew about powers for a long time. He pushed past that, but couldn’t help being envious when Hinata had such a great power, and didn’t even know how to use it.

Yamaguchi closed his eyes again, crouching down to press a hand against the ground. His power wasn’t naturally strong like Hinata’s - he had to put an unholy amount of effort into using hypersensitive senses, and oftentimes he ended with a headache or a nose bleed. His precognition was a bit more natural, more like another sense that he didn’t turn on or off. Tsukishima awkwardly glanced around the dense forest as Yamaguchi grunted in pain, swinging his knife along his knuckles. If Tsukishima was good for anything, it was combat. Yamaguchi wasn’t an attacker, but he was an important member of Karasuno, so Tsukishima was almost his bodyguard, in a way.

“There’s nothing I can sense.” Yamaguchi wiped his ear, a drop of blood smearing on his palm.

“Let’s just check around, in case there’s something you missed.” Tsukishima relaxed despite his words - if there was a big threat, Yamaguchi would have caught it, plus Tsukishima could handle a straggler if he wanted. He didn’t want to go back to his apartment just yet, the stuffiness of the room much less appealing than the summer night air.

Neither of the boys bothered flicking on their flashlights, their eyes already adjusted to the dark. As Tsukishima stepped into the house, shoes crushing broken glass, Yamaguchi shuttered, ears ringing. “Watch out, that beam is about to collapse.”

Tsukishima’s eyes darted up to the half-gone ceiling. A wooden beam, rotting with age, began to creak. Just as it fell, Tsukishima sidestepped to avoid it. Yamaguchi squealed at the loud noise, jumping a foot away from the ruins. Tsukishima brushed off the dust that flew onto his shirt with distaste. Particles now flew around the room in disarray, only visible now that the moon was peeking out from behind the clouds.

Ignoring the fact that he could have been crushed by the beam, Tsukishima continued forward without a word to Yamaguchi. If anyone was nearby, they would have heard the crash, and would be coming to investigate. With that thought, he gripped the handle of his knife a little tighter.

“Shouldn’t we leave?” Yamaguchi asked, voice shaking ever so slightly.

Tsukishima scanned the room. “Just a moment.” Even though he wasn’t the one with powers, he sensed something was off here. “You can wait outside.”

Yamaguchi crossed his arms. “I don’t want you to be crushed by another beam, so I’ll stay.” Tsukishima hid his scoff at Yamaguchi’s attempt to appear tough. They’d been friends since elementary, so Tsukishima knew his true nature. “But please, make it quick, because my ears are still ringing - oh!” Yamaguchi flinched violently. He pointed a shaking hand to the corner of the room.

Following his gesture, Tsukishima noticed a figure standing next to another doorway. The person looked frail, choppy black hair cut close to their scalp and a thick frame under a hospital gown. Despite his cool stature, Tsukishima’s internal alarms were going off. In the four months of being in Karasuno, he never ran into somebody alone. There were a few times he went out with the other members, but never just alone with Yamaguchi. Sure, Suga had taught him how to deal with people while they were scouting, but that was different, in the safety of the office. Now, he was met face to face with an unknown person.

From the first glance, Tsukishima knew that they weren’t a part of Aoba Johsai or Shiratorizawa, which was a relief. They appeared to be a civilian, but Tsukishima didn’t loosen his grip on the butterfly knife in his hands. After all, there was no reason for them to be in an abandoned house in the middle of the woods.

“Hey, what are you do -”

“Tsukki!”

The warning was too late - the person in the hospital gown rushed Tsukishima, hands outreached for his neck. They crashed to the ground, their hands wrapping around Tsukishima’s neck. As his back hit the ground, a piece of glass sliced against his neck, making Tsukishima wince in pain. The person on top of him wasn’t strong, but they were putting all of their strength into their arms, cutting off Tsukishima’s breath, but leaving his arms open.

Tsukishima swung his knife to the attacker’s neck, holding it against the side of their neck. They didn’t react - he should have figured something was wrong by the way the attacker’s eyes were manic. The whites of their eyes were nearing dark grey, and their pupils took up nearly all of the color in their eyes.

“Tsukki, don’t -” Yamaguchi exclaimed as Tsukishima kneed up at the perpetrator, shocking them for a precious moment.

As he pushed the person off of him, he growled to Yamaguchi, “I’m not.” In fact, it annoyed him that Yamaguchi thought he would try to kill the attacker. Tsukishima lunged for the attacker, the knife placed safely back on his belt. He quickly tackled the person to the ground, pinning their arms down by their wrists. They squirmed under Tsukishima violently, groaning inhumanely trying to escape his grasp. “Stop moving, or I won’t hesitate to slit your throat.”

With that threat, Yamaguchi gasped. He wasn’t sure if Tsukishima was being serious - but the attacker didn’t seem to understand what he said. They continued to thrash around, making animalistic noises in the back of their throat.

“ _Shit_.” Tsukishima mumbled, the back of his neck burning with the gash. “Yamaguchi, give me that brick.” He jerked his head toward the pile of rubble in the middle of the room, ignoring the blood dripping down the side of his neck. “Now!” He exclaimed, realizing Yamaguchi was frozen in place.

Yamaguchi dashed for the brick as the attacker swung their leg up at Tsukishima. Luckily, Tsukishima read their movements and dodged the swing, releasing his grip on the attacker for a moment. That’s all the time they needed to jump up, launching themself at Yamaguchi while his back was turned. Yamaguchi turned around with frantic eyes, presumably using his precognitic. He was a little too slow to step out of the way, and the two went tumbling into rubble.

Tsukishima rushed toward the rubble, seeing the attacker on top of Yamaguchi, choking him the same way they had Tsukishima. Shit, I’m sorry, Yamaguchi.

Pulling the knife off of his belt in a single motion, he raised it to the attacker’s neck, ready to see the burst of blood -

“Wait!” Yamaguchi yelled - he shouldn’t have been able to yell, since he was being choked - but he did, shoving his hand out at Tsukishima. Tsukishima hesitated. “They’re dead, they’re dead, stop.”

“What?” Tsukishima snarled, grabbing the attacker by the off of their gown. They didn’t respond, instead slumping against the rubble. He pressed two fingers under their jaw. Nothing. After checking their wrist too, Tsukishima sat back on his knees. “Well, shit. How are we gonna explain this to Daichi?”

Yamaguchi stayed silent, eyes wide open. Red marks started to show on his neck. “Are you okay, Tsukki? The back of your neck…”

Blood trickled down his shirt, along his spine. His adrenaline was slowly coming down, the pain ebbing in. Tsukishima sighed, wringing his fingers together to keep himself from picking at the wound. “Call Daichi or Suga - whoever you think will yell at us the least. I’ll carry whoever this is.”

__________

Kageyama arrived at the Karasuno Office the next day, after deciding to skip the rest of his classes. He was passing Statistics for once in his life, so it couldn’t hurt to skip that class for today. He had much more pressing issues, like how he watched that little highschooler get shot by five hitmen, and suddenly heal himself using his glowy power. If his Statistics professor saw that herself, he was sure that she would understand. Not like he would tell the professor, anyway.

It took longer than average for Kageyama to get to the Karasuno Office because one, he didn’t have a car and was far too broke to take a cab, and two, there weren’t instructions to ‘Karasuno Agency.’ It shouldn’t have surprised him, since Suga told him that powers were supposed to be a secret, but it did. Kageyama had to retrace his steps back to the office, taking the wrong turn a total of four times and walking into three random stores.

Once he arrived in front of the Agency, he marveled at its normality. Placed on the corner of a four way, it wasn’t much taller than the buildings surrounding it. It blended in. No signs of floating silver haired men, or annoying and energetic shrimps. It looked almost too normal, to the point where Kageyama hesitated going in, in fear that it was another store that he would accidentally step foot in.

The door opened before he could touch it. A green haired boy with an array of freckles across his face jumped at the sight of Kageyama. Kageyama nearly jumped back too, surprised by the studded leather jacket and combat boots that didn’t match the soft look on his face. Then the boy, who was about Kageyama’s age, brightened. “I knew it, I knew that you were just outside the door!” He ducked back behind the door, voice muffling. “Tsukki, I didn’t even have to use my hyper senses for that!” The boy turned back to Kageyama, eyes turning up in an excited smile. “I’m Yamaguchi - come in, Daichi’s been waiting for you all day.”

Kageyama entered the familiar lobby. It wasn’t a small room, but the excess amount of chairs, the bookcases lining the walls, and the plants that overtook every spare table made it crowded. Next to Yamaguchi was a much taller, much more stoic-faced blonde guy. He looked pissed off - not just at Kageyama’s arrival, but at something else, too. He glared at Kageyama with disgusted hazel eyes behind a pair of glasses. Kageyama returned the favor, shoving his hands down the pockets of his jeans.

“Geez, someone’s sour faced.” The blonde guy teased, the glare replacing itself with a smirk. “Good to know our newest recruit has a bad attitude.”

A deeper scowl found its way to Kageyama’s mouth. “ _You’re_ the one who started glaring at me first, idiot.”

The blondie’s lips quirked up even more. “Really? I don’t remember -”

“Tsukishima. Picking a fight with the newbie already? That’s bold, considering the trouble you got into last night.” In the doorway stood the Head of Karasuno - well, Kageyama assumed so, by the way he stood tall and gave off the aura of a leader. Tsukishima, the blondie who was insulting Kageyama, shrunk at the sight of him. “Anyways, Asahi wants to see both of you. He’s still trying to identify the body, so go help him.”

The two boys scrambled off, past the Head of Karasuno. Kageyama couldn’t help but scowl as he watched Tsukishima walk away - even the way he walked was arrogant.

“Don’t mind him. I’m Sawamura Daichi - first name is okay.” Daichi sent a gentle smile at Kageyama, who didn’t respond. At first glance, Daichi looked like a threat. Despite not being giant like Tsukishima, he was bulky and his presence was commanding. “As you know, I am the Head of this Agency. If you would follow me to my office, I can answer your questions. And tell you a little bit about what’s going on.”

Kageyama stayed quiet. He had a lot of questions, most of them stemming from ‘what the actual hell?’ As Daichi led him up a flight of stairs, claiming that the elevator was broken, Kageyama wondered how his life was going to go from here. It was obvious that Karasuno wanted to recruit him - but he still had college - he still had family, albeit across the country. He met the first member of Karasuno, Hinata, while he had a gun to his head. Joining Karasuno would be dangerous, and definitely not the right idea for him.

On the other hand, Kageyama really had nothing going for him. He didn’t know what he wanted to do, despite being a semester into college. He’d fallen out of love with the one thing he was sure of - volleyball - so most of his days were spent in his dorm, trying to study for Literature but ultimately failing. Plus, he didn’t think he could live normally with knowing there was a whole underworld of people with powers.

He shook his head as Daichi opened the door to his office. He was getting ahead of himself - maybe he wouldn’t be asked to join, and he could continue with his normal life.

As Kageyama stepped inside the office, he immediately noticed something wrong. The office was mostly plain, the same abundant amount of bookshelves crowding the walls, and a window overlooking the street below. There were two desks, situated on the opposite sides of the room. At one of the desks sat Suga, hunched over a laptop with a frown on his face. At the other desk, in one of the chairs opposite it, was Hinata. Kageyama automatically scowled at the back of the shrimp’s hair, not forgetting the giant bump on his forehead inflicted by Hinata himself.

Suga glanced up and grinned once he saw Kageyama - or was it Daichi? Kageyama couldn’t tell who he was happy to see, so he settled for both. “Hi, Daichi! Kageyama, too.”

 _Ah, I see what’s going on here_. Kageyama didn’t respond to Suga, instead just sending him a glance before averting his eyes back to Hinata. Daichi directed him to sit down in the chair next to Hinata, which made him shudder with disdain. Hinata returned his frown, just after flicking his gaze up to Kageyama’s forehead, half covered by his crow-black hair.

Daichi settled into the chair across the desk, the dark shadows under his eyes more present in the natural lighting. “Again, sorry about Tsukishima. He’s normally not that snappy - well, he is - but he caused a bit of trouble last night.”

Hinata rolled his eyes at the mention of Tsukishima. “Nishinoya told me that they were supposed to go for a scout, but ended up killing someone.

“Tell Noya to stop spreading rumors.” Daichi frowned, leaning forward in his chair. “And neither Yamaguchi nor Tsukishima killed them - you know our policies.” Hinata shrunk back in his chair as the Head sternly shook his head. “Anyway, Kageyama. Suga told me you have a power that allows you to mute others' powers. How long have you known about this?”

Kageyama shifted in his seat under the gaze of Daichi. “I only found out about it when Suga wanted me to test it out on him.”

“He used it when he _tackled_ me in that bathroom, too.” Hinata piped in, crossing his legs on the seat childishly. “I could have handled the situation, by the way.”

Daichi ran a hand through his short brown hair with a groan. “Hinata, you should be glad Kageyama was there. If not, you could have injured yourself again, or burned the entire store down.”

“I didn’t tackle you, you dumbass.” Kageyama said, ignoring Daichi in favor of arguing with someone who was _clearly_ wrong. “They pushed me into you by accident. And Daichi’s right, you should be thanking me for helping you.”

Hinata scoffed. “Helping me? You would have been dead if I wasn’t there! Who was it that protected you from five bullet wounds?”

“If you weren’t there, I wouldn’t be in that situation in the first place! They were after _you_ , not me.”

“So now you’re -”

A fist slammed down on the desk, startling everyone, including Suga, who was taking a sip of water at that moment. He promptly spit all over the computer screen in shock. Suga cursed, wiping at the screen with the bottom of his shirt. Kageyama and Hinata were frozen, silent as mice. Daichi was looking past them, at the space in between the two, with a murderous glare.

“They’re going to be after _both_ of you, now.” Daichi grounded out, fist still clenched on top of the desk. “Now please, stop interrupting me, and for the love of everything that’s holy, _stop arguing_. Hinata, you’re better than this.” Hinata’s mouth opened and closed, as if he was going to object. He finally closed it, nodded and gazing at his lap. “Great. Now, Kageyama, I’m going to offer Karasuno’s protection for you for the time being. Do you accept?”

A sea of questions formed in Kageyama’s head. Was he in _danger_? Sure, he ran into hitmen running after Hinata at his college campus store, but did those hitmen assume that Kageyama was working with Hinata? Not like Kageyama would want to work with Hinata, anyway. Were these hitmen serious trouble? Hinata seemed to brush it off easily enough, but Daichi looked stressed - he wasn’t sure if it was because of Hinata’s incessant talking, or because of a greater threat.

“Am I being recruited?” All of those questions Kageyama had, and yet he chose one of the simple ones.

Daichi furrowed his brow. He wasn’t expecting that question either. “No, not yet. There’s a lot of steps that involve being recruited, and it’s a whole mess that none of us at Karasuno have the time to deal with right now.” Somehow Kageyama felt disappointed at those words. “But, if you accept, you’ll have to move out of your dorm, and move into an apartment around here - for free, of course.”

The words ‘for free’ was all Kageyama needed. College, especially dorms, were expensive as hell. Not having to pay a living fee made a lot of room in Kageyama’s bank account for milk, yogurt, and hopefully some proper meals. His diet consisted of microwaved ramen, his roommate’s leftovers, and dairy. Needless to say, even since he’s joined college, he’s lost a few pounds. “I’ll accept.” Kageyama wasn’t worried about hitmen, or being involved with powers anymore - free housing sounded perfectly good to him.

“Good, good.” Daichi exhaled, sitting back in his chair. “The next few weeks will be a bit rocky, since we’re still trying to figure out who the hitmen belong to. Not to mention the whole dead body ordeal.” He added the last part under his breath, brow furrowing. “You’re still seventeen, correct?”

Hinata, who was previously drawing circles on the desk in front of him, straightened with a gasp. "Seventeen?”

Kageyama glared at the red-head beside him. “Yes, idiot, my birthday's later in the year -”

“No, not that! I’m older than you - Eighteen.” Hinata cheered gleefully. Kageyama scowled, but didn’t respond to his teasing, sensing Daichi’s glare at both of them. Hinata quickly stopped his laughter.

“That’s unfortunate.” Suga looked up from wiping the water off of his laptop, suppressing a smug grin. “It looks like all of our apartment rooms are taken up - except one.” Suga rests his hand on his face, humming in thoughtfulness. “Hinata, don’t you have that extra room in your apartment?

Hinata scrambled out of his chair. “I’m not rooming with him.”

____________

Hinata Shouyou hated Kageyama for quite a few reasons.

Number one. The first word he spoke to him was ‘dumbass’ right after Hinata saved his life. Well, he wasn’t sure who saved who at this point, but he wasn’t going to admit that to Kageyama. To anyone, in fact. But Hinata believed he was in the right, because calling someone a dumbass after they got shot multiple times was an asshole move.

Number two. The way he looked down at Hinata was aggravating. Sure - everyone around Hinata looked down at him, since he was shorter than the average eighteen year old, with the exception of Nishinoya. The way Kageyama looked down at Hinata was extra irritating, probably as irritating as Tsukishima, who mentioned his height every time Hinata was in the room. Kageyama just had the _air_ of thinking he was better than everyone around him. He didn’t know if Kageyama actually thought that, but he sure acted like it.

Number three. He was now living with Hinata. Hinata’s apartment was small, the two rooms the size of a walk-in closet. Hinata didn’t mind before, because most of the time he spent his time lounged in the living room, on the worn-out couch that he found on the corner of the street. But now, there was another human in his house, specifically a person he hated.

Number four was the rest of his list condensed into one. Hinata hated how he just stood in the doorway for a moment, eyes sweeping over the main room of his apartment without any emotion. He hated how his steps were nearly silent, how he scowled at Hinata any time he looked at him, how Kageyama noticed Daichi was angry faster than himself earlier. And over everything else, Hinata hated how Kageyama was quite easy on the eyes. Despite his sharp glare and intimidating presence, Kageyama was unfortunately cute.

 _Why couldn’t he be ugly?_ Hinata questioned, rummaging around in his nearly empty fridge as Kageyama shuffled into the spare room. Kageyama being pretty made it easier to hate him, so Hinata wasn’t complaining too much.

But he still was complaining a bit, and that annoyance translated into losing control. Yes, he was starting to glow a little bit. Sometimes, he could control his power - he could see everything clearly despite the glow, and direct his power perfectly. Other days, his power would just flare up, or not work at all. Today was one of those days, but luckily, in these short two months that he’s known about his power, he’s figured out a couple ways to fix the issue. The most effective way was to take a cold bath, but he _just_ put the laundry in the washer, and didn’t want to start another load so soon. So he took the easier method of putting frozen peas over his body.

 _Well, there_ is _another way_. Kageyama could mute his power for a moment, making it go away. The last time he touched Hinata, it took a few minutes for Hinata to regain his power. There was absolutely no way he was going to ask.

There were only two small packs of peas, which wasn’t exactly enough. Normally he had five, but Tanaka and Noya raided his house a week earlier, and Hinata guessed they were the culprits. In place of the extra three packs of frozen peas, Hinata threw himself onto the cold kitchen counter, pressing his cheek against the smooth surface. He winced as he stuck the peas under his shirt - it was painful, but he felt the effects automatically. Hinata _wasn’t_ in immediate danger of burning his apartment down. Again.

The glow around him softened, but didn’t disappear. Hinata rolled over onto his back, letting his feet dangle off of the counter. He was out of luck - running into people who wanted to kill him, having to let Kageyama move in with him, and now half of his peas were gone. Not to mention, Daichi wouldn’t let him out to scout on his own for a while - he probably would keep him strictly in the office, or in his apartment until they found out who was trying to kidnap or kill him. Daichi told him, a few weeks after he’d been invited to work at Karasuno, that once he could control his power, he’d be one of the most powerful people in the city. At first, Hinata thought that it would be a breeze, and soon the whole underground world would admire him, just like that aging power-user that saved his sister all those years ago. But multiple burnt books, tables, and couches later, Hinata only had a small grasp on his power.

Hinata thought of his sister - she was further uptown, away from the mess of downtown. They both lost their parents to gun-wielding gang members, hoping to rob their house in the countryside for _something_ \- Hinata never found out - only three months ago. It didn’t affect Hinata as much as it should, but the fact that he never watched them die, and that he was always distant from his parents, helped in a way. His sister, Natsu, took it hard. She was living with two of the most responsible people Suga and Daichi knew, Ukai and Takeda, who lived away from the heart of the city. A part of Hinata wanted to take care of Natsu himself, but the other, more sensible part, knew that it would be hell for both of them.

That’s why Hinata stuck himself downtown, staying with Karasuno. He didn’t want revenge - all of those robbers had been killed or taken to jail by the person he admired the most, and the person who inspired him to accept Karasuno’s help. They called him ‘The Dark Crow’ - an anonymous person with a power that allowed him to summon dark, twisting pillars that bended to his will. He was the one to save Natsu and himself, and disappeared ever since that incident. If The Dark Crow was gone, someone had to step up to the job and a month ago, Hinata thought, _what better person than me?_

Hinata was going to stay optimistic. Even when Suga or Daichi told him that he was making unusually slow progress, he had to keep pushing. There was nothing greater than -

“You’re going to burn the counter off!” Kageyama exclaimed from his doorway, glaring at the increasing glow.

The pack of peas inside Hinata’s shirt had been thoroughly cooked. He tossed them to the side, closing his eyes. He couldn’t burn yet another apartment room in just four weeks - Suga wouldn’t hesitate to sink his body six feet under, and Daichi would probably kill him out of pure rage. _Just concentrate, just concentrate, just -_

A cool hand brushed the side of his neck, and Hinata flinched at the change in temperature. He involuntarily relaxed into the touch, eyes shooting open only to see the glow emitting from his body wisping away.

“Get off of me, dumbass.” Kageyama growled, shoving Hinata away from him. HIs rubbed his eyes sorely, blinking to get his vision back. “How often are you going to do that? I don’t want to live with someone who’s a fire hazard all the time.”

Hinata stumbled into the counter, his body still hot. He only figured out he had a power two months ago, and the first time he used it, it was a disaster. Suga found him downtown, the same scratches that were filled with a yellow-orange colored void that he could inflict on others on himself. He was stuck in Karasuno’s infirmary for three weeks as Kiyoko tried to figure out how to fix the injuries. In the end, it was her assistant, Yachi, who healed him, since she was the only one with a healing power out of the two. After that incident, Hinata tried to keep a hold on his power. Sometime it slipped, just like a few moments ago. The amount of times he lost control was slowly increasing - something that the rest of the Karasuno team was trying to help out with, on top of all of their other duties. Hinata wanted to get better so the rest of them didn’t have to worry, but he hadn’t made any progress.

He hummed, counting on his fingers. “It’s happened about, five, six, seven...Twelve times since last week? Yeah, that’s right.”

“What?” Kageyama exclaimed, taking a step away from Hinata. “That’s - that’s…” Kageyama looked down at his hands, muttering as he counted on his fingers. Hinata suppressed a laugh - so Kageyama was bad at math too. “That’s almost twice a day every day! Shouldn’t you be focusing on controlling that, or something, instead of walking around and getting shot?”

Hinata picked up the cooked peas from the ground. He shook them - maybe he would eat at home for once. “I _have_. But it’s hard - you wouldn’t understand, your power isn’t the type that you control.”

Kageyama blinked. “It is.”

“Exactly - huh?” Halfway through opening the bag of peas, Hinata stopped himself. “You...You can?” _Already?_ He only found out about his power yesterday, how could he already control it? And in what ways could he control it?

Jealousy flared up in his chest at how nonchalant Kageyama was. He didn't brag, like Tsukishima would - he just stood there, a blank look in his eyes. “I can control how much of someone’s power I mute. It works - some of the time.”

Now Hinata understood why Daichi and Suga made them stay in the same apartment - not only because they didn’t have an extra apartment - they planned to pair Hinata and Kageyama together, once Kageyama was inducted into Karasuno. Both panic and excitement flowed through Hinata’s veins, but he was careful not to go overboard again. Although he thought Kageyama was irritatingly arrogant and far too straight-faced, being paired with him meant that he could actually help Karasuno. If Kageyama was at his side during missions, he could use his power without the fear of tearing everything around him down.

“Try it on me!” Hinata bounced up, throwing the peas to the side.

But that would only work if both parties cooperated, and Kageyama didn’t catch the drift.

With a scowl, he turned his back. “I know what you’re thinking - but helping you wouldn’t help me in any way, and I don’t want to spend anymore time with you then I already have to.” With that, he walked back into his room, closing the door quietly.

Oh. _Oh_. That hurt Hinata a little more than it should have, especially from someone he met yesterday. It was true - only Hinata would reap benefits from Kageyama helping him control his power, and Hinata wasn’t even sure what Kageyama’s intentions were. He didn’t even know if he wanted to join Karasuno, so it was dumb of Hinata to ask him for help, anyway.

Dejected, Hinata picked up the peas from the counter. Since Kageyama didn’t want to be around Hinata, maybe he would take this over to Noya’s apartment. Except, Noya was always tinkering around in his living room, and the smell of those spare parts was horrid. Plus his air conditioning wasn’t working at the moment, so the last time Hinata visited his apartment it was a sauna. He could visit Tanaka, but knowing him, he didn’t have any good food in his fridge. Not like Hinata did either.

Hinata started toward the door, a pack of peas cradled in his arms. He would have to buy more, or just start taking cold baths all the time. The second option had a higher success rate, and considering the peas didn’t help at all just a few minutes ago, Hinata decided that he would cook the rest of the peas later. Yamaguchi would probably appreciate free peas, but he lived with Tsukishima, and Hinata wanted to stay as far away from him as possible right now. Or all the time. The last person left who lived in this apartment complex was Suga. Suga was a pretty good option, since he had his fridge stocked all the time. There was a chance that Hinata would get a lecture, but Suga usually left his parental attitude at the office.

Just as Hinata twisted the shaky doorknob to his apartment, a blast from the apartment beside him knocked him against the wall. The peas in his arms caught aflame, and Hinata realized his power activated automatically. Cursing, Hinata scrambled to his feet, noticing the damage across from him. The entire wall near the kitchen was decimated, fire curling up from the debris. Above him, the clear sky peeked through the dark smoke rising rapidly through the air.

The person who lived in the apartment next to him was...Nishinoya. Hinata jumped toward the flames, squinting against his increasing glow and the smoke. Right as he tried to step through the broken wall, he was knocked back by an invisible wall.

“Don’t, Hinata!” Noya’s voice shook, a gentle cough following. “I’m fine, stay over there.” Through the smoke, Hinata could see Nishinoya surrounded by a shimmery, holographic shield - his power, which he pulled out just before he could be hit by whatever caused his mess.

Hinata reached out to the invisible wall, hand pressing against it. “Are you okay? What was that?”

Nishinoya shook his head, lowering the shield around him. “Someone tried to bomb my apartment. We have to evacuate -”

Another explosion interrupted him, this time across the hallway. Both of their eyes widened. “Was that -”

“Tanaka!” Nishinoya exclaimed, taking a step to run to his apartment. “Call Daichi and get out, okay? I’ve got this.” He scrambled out of the ruined apartment without a glance back. Tanaka, although a great member of the Agency, didn’t have a power to save himself with. Suga could float out of the apartment, Yamaguchi could predict where the next explosion would be and save Tsukishima with him, but Tanaka was living alone, and without a power. Hinata prayed that he was okay.

But Hinata wasn’t going to listen to Nishinoya’s demand - not completely. Suga would have already notified Daichi, plus Hinata was pretty sure he left his phone on the counter that got blown up. He was focusing on not causing more destruction, with his panic raising his glow.

“What the hell?” Kageyama arrived at Hinata’s side, and Hinata jumped two feet away from him. Despite overflowing with light, Hinata suspected that he might need his power. Someone was targeting the Karasuno members, and touching Kageyama would take away his ability to fight for a few precious minutes. “Were those _bombs_?”

“Yeah,” Hinata replied distantly as another _boom_ sounded. It sounded further down the hall - probably Tsukishima and Yamaguchi’s apartment. He wasn’t too worried about them, because even if Yamaguchi hadn’t sensed a bomb going off in their room, Tsukishima would be smart enough to know that they were being targeted. “Let’s go, try not to touch me.”

Kageyama scowled at his response, but kept his distance as Hinata jogged into the hallway, eyes darting around to look for any signs of someone else. Yamaguchi and Tsukishima were already in the hall, Tsukishima with a straight face and Yamaguchi clinging to the back of his shirt. Past them, the elevator and the staircase was blown away - the bomber planned on trapping them in. Hinata closed his eyes for a brief moment, curling his fingers in. _Trapped trapped trapped, just like before -_

Another explosion lit up the hallway, from the opposite end. Suga flew out of the room just before the debris could hit him, skidding across the floor before coming to a stop a few feet away from the group. He swore, wiping away blood from a small cut under his eye. Suga snapped his head up to the group. “Where’s Noya and Tanaka?” He wasn’t even breathless, despite being thrown across a hallway.

“He’s in Tanaka’s apartment, I think he’s inju -”

“Okay, stay here - and _do not_ try to jump out of the building.” Suga cut in before turning his back and floating over the flames lapping at the edge of Tanaka’s wall.

Tsukishima rested his hands near his belt. “They’re here for you, Hinata. Whoever they are, they want _you_. That’s the only reason your apartment wasn’t touched.” He gestured a hand at his apartment - unharmed, except for the decimated kitchen wall.

Hinata shoved his hands behind his back - they were growing hotter than the rest of his body, which meant if he didn’t calm down, his hands would turn into that void of red, yellow, and orange. Tsukishima wasn’t wrong. If Tanaka _was_ injured, it would be his fault, because he let those hitmen get away. In fact, it was already his fault that all of their apartments were ruined. Nishinoya’s little tinkers were probably all gone, all of the food in Suga’s fridge, the collection of Yamaguchi’s manga, all gone.

“Don’t,” Hinata snapped at Kageyama, who tried to rest a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve got it, I can -”

Yamaguchi pushed Kageyama to the side before he could finish. They tumbled to the ground as a shot fired just past Hinata’s ear. If Kageyama wasn’t on the floor, the bullet would have gone straight through his heart.

Tsukishima whipped out a throwing knife in a flash, pointing toward the direction of the shot. Nothing was there, except for the slow flames climbing toward them. On the ground, Yamaguchi pushed Kageyama against the wall with a ‘sorry’ and a wince. Hinata shot forward a beam of light, but hit nothing. His hands were now rapidly turning into a solid orange, any creases and texture disappearing.

“Stop doing that,” Tsukishima grumbled, taking a step away from Hinata. The light was almost overbearing now, illuminating any dark spots in the hallway. “It’s a sniper, they’re trying to take us out so they can take you. They’re probably in the building past Suga’s apartment.” He pointed past the rubble and flames of Suga’s apartment, to the highrise building across the street.

Nishinoya jogged out of Tanaka’s apartment, the faint holographic shimmer still around him, protecting him from the copious amount of smoke. The explosion still got to him - his left forearm was already forming burn marks and the tips of his hair were singed.

Nobody followed behind him. It was only Nishinoya. Hinata froze. “Where’s Suga and Tanaka? Are they okay?”

Noya, normally one of the peppiest out of the group, grimaced. “Suga’s taking Tanaka to the hospital - he’ll make it, but we might have to call in Yachi.” Hinata’s face dropped. Yachi was in the next city over, at college - if they had to call her in, Hinata didn’t want to know how bad Tanaka was. “Don’t make that face, we just have to figure out -”

“Noya!” Yamaguchi yelled, a steady trickle of blood coming out his ear. Nishinoya threw up a shield immediately, the crackle of the flames quieting and the faint sirens muting completely.

Another bullet hit the shield. Noya winced - Hinata remembered that his shield didn’t completely block out the pain, only nullified it. It was like a second skin. He whipped around to face the direction of the shot, rubbing his chest, where the shot would have gone. “Thanks, Yamaguchi. And Hinata, stop getting fired up, hot air gets trapped in here.”

“Sorry.” Hinata mumbled, squinting down the hall. Noya wouldn’t be able to move with four extra people in his shield, much less find a way to escape. By the way his eyes were unfocusing, Hinata knew that the smoke from the fire had a large effect on his abilities. He couldn't protect all of them. If he let the shield down for just a moment, the shooter would take their chance. And it _was_ Hinata’s fault that they’ve been attacked, that their homes were gone. Somebody had to do something, so there was only one choice left. “Let me out.”

“No.” Nishinoya snapped, inching away from Hinata. “You’re already too excited, and nobody wants you to get hurt like last time.”

 _Last time._ Last time was the last major expedition Karasuno went on, shortly after Hinata was inducted into the Agency. They were short-staffed enough on a regular day, so going out to meet with some other major groups in Sendai was more than dangerous. So Hinata tagged along, despite not being experienced enough to go out alone on an errand. Daichi insisted that Hinata could stay behind, but Suga begged him to let Hinata go, so he could learn about the other groups in the city face to face, rather than having to teach him in the cramped study.

So they went off - it was most of Karasuno at the time. The Head and Co-head, the other newbies at the time, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, Noya, Tanaka, Asahi, and one of the interns, Ennoshita. Everything was moving smoothly - Hinata sat at one of the tables, clueless as the other Heads talked about how the rest of the year was going to go, the trade from the harbour, something about stocks, which Hinata disliked, since he dropped out of college for a reason. Noya kept him company as they spoke about things Suga tried to teach Hinata about, but didn’t bother to pay attention.

Then, a knife anchored itself into one of the Co-Head’s back. Later, they found out that it was a Shiratorizawa assassin, one of the most aggressive groups in the Miyagi prefecture. But at the time, it could have been anyone. Everyone quickly turned on each other, and the exit was blocked. Hinata, who had been itching for some action the moment he stepped into Karasuno, started glowing immediately. In their panic, someone shot a bullet at Hinata’s leg, but Noya blocked it after Yamaguchi cried out.

Unfortunately, the red-head only got more fired up. In the end, he ended up burning through the wall of the building, falling down three stories, and breaking both of his wrists, nearly impaling himself on scrap metal in the middle of the alleyway. Needless to say, Daichi yelled at him for hours for embarrassing them at the meeting, and now Hinata tried to avoid his eyes all the time.

It wouldn’t be like this time. Hinata brushed his hand against the shield, and it flinched away at the glow. “I’ll be fine, I’ve gotten better at controlling it.”

“No you haven’t, we can all see that.” Tsukishima sneered, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “However, if you want to sacrifice yourself to the cause, go ahead.”

Hinata ignored Tsukishima’s snarky comment and stepped out of the shield. Nishinoya whipped out a hand to stop him, but Hinata sidestepped it. He was fully out of the shield now - the thrill of the shooter being able to hurt him made him lighter on his feet. “I’m fine - it won’t be like last -”

A hand wrapped around his wrist. Hinata tried to yank his hand out of Kageyama’s but his grip was as strong as iron. His light didn’t falter, nor did Kageyama injure himself by touching Hinata. His jaw slacked, and he stopped struggling against Kageyama - he mentioned that he could only control how much he mutes by a little bit. Could he have mastered his power already?

Even Kageyama looked surprised at the effect - or lack of therefore. “I don’t know what happened ‘last time’ but I won’t let it happen again.” He directed at Nishinoya after regaining composure. Hinata looked at him in wonder. Just a few minutes ago, he said that he wouldn’t ever waste his power on Hinata. What caused the change in heart? “Let’s get moving, before they try to shoot me again. I’m counting on you to take the shots, Hinata. I’ll mute your power when it’s time.”

Kageyama said it with such confidence, as if he were used to bossing people around, that Hinata couldn’t help but nod right away. He hated himself for being so obedient to him, but promised himself that later he would beat Kageyama. That’s only if Kageyama’s powers actually worked and Hinata didn’t burn through his own organs after taking the shooter down.

Hinata wouldn’t admit it, but Kageyama’s hand in his gave him a sense of clarity. He could even see the next bullet in slow motion, and shot out his hand in front of Kageyama’s chest. The bullet never pierced his skin, instead got swallowed by a void of light. _Woah. That’s new._

Not waiting for another shot, Hinata bolted down the hall, leaving Kageyama to jog behind him, eyes wide at his own hand.

___________

A few weeks ago, Kageyama returned home to his dorm from summer break. It wasn’t as if he wanted to leave college in the first place - it was just that he had nothing to do during the break. He had mutuals from the college volleyball team, but he knew for a fact that they didn’t like him. Kageyama tried to make friends, but somehow it always ended in them getting offended at his embarrassingly short temper and constant scowl. He didn’t know how to fix it, either.

When he went back to that remote part of Miyagi, his parents were, well, his parents. They acted like they always did - a bit cold, not welcoming in the slightest, but they cared about him. The bare minimum, but they did care. For forty days, Kageyama sat in his old room. It was barren except for the boxes of old things they planned to get rid of from Kageyama’s childhood. The stacks of boxes only confirmed his suspicion that his parents have been waiting for ages for Kageyama to leave their home. He was a burden for them - in what way, he didn’t really want to figure out.

It bothered him, but he couldn’t be bothered at something he knew all along. For the longest time, Kageyama’s been alone. He’s had fleeting friends, or classmates who weren’t bothered by the fact that they had to sit next to him. Occasionally, he could crack a joke with his dorm roommate. But there was always the thought simmering underneath their neutral expressions around him, the thought of ‘so this is one of those _truly_ unlikable people.’ Kageyama saw those thoughts in the subtle glances and whispers, in the way people in the halls of his school would take an extra step to the side to avoid bumping into him.

Beyond reading their uncomfort, Kageyama didn’t know what else people thought. He spent most of his early years in high school wondering how people got along with each other. He tried to copy the way a friend would smile at another, or how his classmates started conversations. It always came out as flat and awkward, no matter how much he tried to ‘lighten up’ as one of his old volleyball teammates said. He just didn’t understand how the people around him worked, and eventually turned away from the crowds and focused solely on himself. He would never figure it out, so why waste time on trying?

A day ago, Kageyama went to the grocery store in the corner of his college campus to get some milk. He never got the milk, instead finding himself at gunpoint alongside a glowing teenage boy. Then he got knocked into that boy, and that was the most physical contact he’s had in years beside the awkward handshakes and accidental brushing of shoulders in a crowded room. It was strange - he didn’t expect other people to be _that_ warm, although he was pretty sure half of that warmth was because Hinata was glowing a few moments prior. But that was enough to set aflame a curiosity in Kageyama, making Kageyama wonder what someone else was thinking for the first time in years.

The first time Kageyama muted Hinata’s power, it was an accident, and they were being shot at, so he couldn’t process what exactly he was feeling. Earlier today, when he muted Suga’s power, it felt like there was a block just below his skin, only allowing Kageyama to try muting the surface of what he was. Kageyama felt his veins, the smoothness of his skin, and the tip of his nerves, but that was it. Suga was subconsciously blocking things from getting in - or maybe from getting things out. Whatever it was, Kageyama just assumed that the block was normal, and that everyone had it.

Now, Kageyama has Hinata’s hand in his, and he was _terrified_. There was nothing like Suga’s block. Hinata was clear - he could feel not only the expanse of his skin, or his veins, but nearly everything else too. He felt the echo of Hinata’s heartbeat in his own, how his blood flowed through his veins to his heart like rivers to the ocean. There was a churn in his stomach, and a burn at his side that was enough to make Kageyama want to rip his hand away from Hinata’s. All this time, alone, nothing knowing anything about the people around him, and now Kageyama _felt_ Hinata. There was something so horrible about the way Kageyama could feel the rise and fall of Hinata’s breath without him being aware.

He couldn’t let go now, because Hinata was now sprinting down the hall, and Kageyama could barely keep up anyway. He tried to direct his attention away from the fact that Hinata’s hand was a void of flickering light and that it was wrapped around his by squinting through the smoke in Suga’s apartment. Hinata slowed down, stepping in front of Kageyama in an attempt to protect him, despite being a good six inches shorter.

“Over there.” Hinata pointed a glowing finger across the street at a high rise office building. Below the apartment on the street, ambulances and firetrucks crowded both sides of the street. “Let’s jump.”

For a moment, Kageyama almost nodded his head in agreement, sinc Hinata suggested jumping so casually, with a tinge of excitement in his voice. Then he realized, _it’s a four lane street, there’s no way we can cross this!_ “Wh- are you crazy?”

Hinata scoffed, and Kageyama jumped at how it reverberated in his lungs. “I can do it - you’re the one who followed me out here.”

“I followed you so you don’t die, dumbass.” Kageyama peered over the side of the apartment, watching the chaos below. “We’re three stories up, and there’s no way you can jump across -”

There was a tug on his hand, and suddenly he was soaring above the street. Kageyama didn’t even have time to scream. By the time he opened his mouth, Hinata already crashed through a window and scrambled to his feet.

The feeling of weightlessness didn’t leave Kageyama, as he struggled to stand up, leaning against the barren wall of the room. Hinata’s glow filled each corner of the empty office. Just under the window they jumped in was an abandoned contraption, probably something that helped steady the sniper’s shots. But the spot under the window was still warm - the sharpshooter hadn’t gone far. A bolt of fear ran up Kageyama’s spine - he wasn’t prepared for this. In fact, just a day ago he was a regular college student dealing with insignificant things like running out of milk and trying to avoid eye contact with other people.

He involuntarily squeezed Hinata’s hand, somewhat thankful for how prominent his heartbeat was, drowning out his own racing pulse. He regretted it a moment later when Hinata shot him a weird glance.

“Watch out, they’re probably still in the room.” Kageyama lowered his voice, averting his eyes away from Hinata’s glow.

A flare of annoyance expanded in Kageyama’s chest that definitely wasn’t his. “ _You_ watch out - I can heal myself.” Hinata rolled his eyes.

Kageyama jerked his hand away from Hinata’s. _So my power included feeling other people’s emotions? I take it back, this isn’t cool at all._ He wiped his palm against his jeans, despairing at the thought of touching Hinata again. It was overwhelming enough to feel every slight movement Hinata made, to feel the quick beat of his heart. Feeling his emotions too only added to the mess.

Before he could retort back, Hinata shot out a hand, releasing a bolt of white light. Kageyama narrowly avoided being hit by the scattered pieces of the chair that HInata hit. “What the fu-”

“Oh, there they are!” Hinata jumped forward, almost flying as he hopped onto a desk, leaving a scorch mark after he lifted his foot up to cross onto another desk. He flew across the room, a vague blur of light in the pitch black of the office. Kageyama rushed to follow him - he didn’t exactly know how much damage Hinata’s power could do unchecked, and didn’t want to figure out.

Just as Kageyama scrambled around the cubicles in an attempt to keep up, a _bang_ echoed in the room. He flinched before ducked behind a chair, hands grasping at his chest. No blood came away. Kageyama let out a dizzying sigh - if the bullet hadn’t hit him, it sure as hell didn’t hit Hinata. He peeked over the chair, whipping his eyes around the office to find where the bullet came from.

Hinata was crumpled on the hardwood floor, hunched over himself. A few feet away, a figure cloaked in black held out a shaking hand, fingers clasped around a handgun. The figure yanked their hood down, revealing a man with dyed blonde hair and wide eyes. He dropped the gun, running a hand through his hair in exasperation.

“ _Shit_. I didn’t mean to - shit!” The man groaned, taking a step back from Hinata. The glow around him intensified, the ground under him turning black. “Oh fuck. I meant to aim for the arm - you bastard, you shouldn’t have moved that quick.” He muttered to himself, eyes zipping over to the behind the chair, where Kageyama was watching with his heart in his stomach. “Is he gonna be okay -”

Hinata jerked up involuntarily, hands clenched around his chest. The flickering orange void slowly climbed up his arms. Both the sniper and Kageyama shielded their eyes from the light around his frame. “The bullet - help -” Hinata choked out.

There were two options here. One was to run to Hinata and maybe call a fucking ambulance because _holy shit he just got shot in the heart_ \- but that would run the risk of Kageyama getting shot by the mysterious shooter, who by the way, seemed a bit too friendly to Kageyama for his taste. The other option was to run the other direction and get help, or maybe just leave this entire underworld of ‘powers’ for good.

Kageyama couldn’t run, even if he wanted to, because leaving Hinata alone would ensure the destruction of this entire building, by the way the glow was firing up by the second. Besides, he already saved this dumbass once before, what was once more?

“Don’t touch me,” Hinata croaked as Kageyama sank to his knees next to him.

Earlier today, Suga wanted Kageyama to control how much of someone’s power he could mute. After a few tries, Kageyama almost got the hang of it. Suga would go floating just above his desk, Kageyama would reach out and brush fingertips, and for a few moments, Suga’s gravity would drop a few inches. Any longer than five seconds, and Suga’s power would be muted completely. Suga told him that his power was almost overbearing - that he had to fight to keep his power for only a few seconds.

Kageyama apologized awkwardly, but Suga only laughed and told him that it was a good thing, especially when it came to more powerful people. He supposed Hinata could be categorized as a person with a strong power, but when he wrapped his hand around his shoulder, he didn’t expect Hinata’s power to be pushing back against his own.

The light faltered, but didn’t disappear like in the grocery store restroom. Kageyama struggled to keep a grip on Hinata’s power until Hinata stopped fighting back, shoulders slumping.

“You have to take the bullet out. It’s stuck.” Hinata removed his hands from his chest, fingers coming away bloodied. “I can’t heal myself with the bullet in there.”

The thought of taking a _bullet_ out of someone’s chest made Kageyama blanch. “You’re so dumb - who goes rushing headfirst at someone with a gun?” The mention of the blondie made Kageyama whip his head over his shoulder. The man was still there, arms crossed, and eyes watching with interest. “Don’t step closer.” Psh, as if he’s scared of me.

“I’m not going to,” He sighed, letting his arms drop to his side. “I’ve already fucked up two tries, and I ought to head back down. Make sure he doesn't die - I’ll be sure to watch out for you next time. Hoshiumi?” Before Kageyama could blink, the man disappeared into thin air, the only trace left of him was his eerily challenging smile.

“Oi, Kageyama.” Hinata grumbled, drawing his attention away from the empty spot. “Can you take the bullet out? I’m getting lightheaded.”


	2. under the shade of the moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kageyama and Hinata roam around Sendai at night and meet two mischievous cats.

“You - you kicked them out?” Suga’s jaw dropped open as Daichi hung his head over his desk. 

“Yes.” It was a meek, small reply, but it was enough to make Suga slam both of his palms onto his forehead.

Suga had no idea what got into Daichi’s mind. Yes, he was also pissed off at Hinata and Kageyama for running after the sniper, and _yes_ he was pissed off that their apartments got blown up because Hinata has someone after him. But that was the exact reason that they _shouldn’t_ have been kicked out. Now Hinata was vulnerable, out of the streets of Sendai, where his kidnappers could be waiting around the next corner. And to think _Daichi,_ the most reasonable person at Karasuno, was responsible for this? 

“I’m going out to find them.” Suga turned his back to Daichi, shaking his head in disbelief. It was already dark out, so finding them would be a pain. Hopefully they would just be sitting right outside of the office, waiting patiently to be let back in. Something told Suga that his wishes wouldn’t come true - Hinata would be bouncing around town by this time. At least, he hoped, Kageyama was sensible to not follow Hinata around.

“Wait,” The exasperation in Daichi’s voice was enough to make Suga turn around again. “I know, I messed up. But Yachi is almost here and you know how she is around all of the guys, plus the others are camping around the infirmary. Please, please, tell them to either head to Asahi’s house or sleep in the main room. Kiyoko and Yachi will get nervous if they hang around for too long.”

Suga eyed Daichi. As always, he wasn’t wrong. Yachi worked horribly under pressure, and Tanaka needed a healer that was working at peak performance. Suga winced as he remembered seeing Noya hunched over Tanaka, his skin blistered and burnt. Carrying him back to the office was a pain too - Tanaka usually never showed any signs of pain, but in that moment he was trying to crack jokes in between groans of pain. But the thought of Hinata skipping around downtown, with the tensions between Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa growing, and two kidnap attempts in the last two days made Suga’s heart pang with worry. 

“We can send Yamaguchi and Tsukishima out to find them.” Daichi offered, ripping his eyes off of his laptop screen. 

Scoffing, Suga plopped down in the chair opposite Daichi. “Weren’t you mad at them earlier for ‘messing up’ the scout we sent them on? And just a few days ago, you claimed that they were too inexperienced to check out that house.” 

“I realize that it wasn’t their fault - anyway, do you want those two to go out? Yamaguchi’s turning out to be a fine scout, and Tsukishima’s naturally observant.” 

Suga thought back to the last time he saw Yamaguchi and Tsukishima. They stepped into the Karasuno Office after Noya escorted them out of the blown up apartment. Yamaguchi’s eyes were still widened, clinging to the sleeve of Tsukishima’s shirt. Beside him, the blond was _very_ pissed off. They weren’t in optimal shape to go out and search for the other pair, Yamaguchi probably scared out of his mind that another bomb would go off, and Tsukishima blaming Hinata for their ruined apartments.

There wasn’t much of an option. Asahi barely left the office and was afraid of the dark himself; Noya was injured, and Daichi was drowning in paperwork already. 

“Fine.” He regretted the words as they came out, realizing that the two boys were probably exhausted already. Suga reminded himself that they knew what they were getting into when they were inducted, but that didn’t erase the worry he had. “I’ll make my rounds before coming back - don’t argue with me, I know you have a lot of work and I want to help.” Suga snapped as Daichi opened his mouth to object.

Suga shouldered the door open with one last glance at Daichi. His eyes returned to his laptop. “See you, Koushi.”

The syllables shocked him as he quietly closed the door behind himself. Daichi only called him ‘Koushi’ behind closed doors, for some reason. Suga didn’t mind that at all - at least he called him by his first name occasionally. For the past years, he reasoned that Daichi wanted to keep everything professional in front of the others. The truth was, that the two had been close friends for years, and it was only natural for them to call each other by their first names. 

Yet he didn’t, at least not often. Suga didn’t let the sting under his heart affect him, turning the corner toward the infirmary. A group of boys were settled in the middle of the hallway, either leaning against the wall or cross-legged on the hardwood floor. They looked relatively light-hearted for experiencing a bombing and hanging outside of an infirmary that held one of their friends. 

“And so I had to convince Ukai that I _hadn’t_ stolen his wallet, even though I did - oh, Suga!” Noya straightened his back, shifting away from his place of leaning against Asahi’s shoulder on the floor. “You didn’t hear all of that, right?”

Suga didn’t want to touch on what he overheard - the thought of Ukai only brought more stress. “None of it.” His hands snapped to his hips and he surveyed the hallway. Asahi and Noya were sitting on the floor opposite the door to the infirmary, legs stretched out in front of them. Ennoshita leaned against the wall next to them, a soft smile on his face as he laughed at Noya’s antics. Yamaguchi paced a few feet in front of the door, glancing at it every few seconds. Tsukishima only scowled downward as Suga took a step beside him.

“Is Yachi almost here?” Yamaguchi whipped around to face Suga, a hopeful look on his face. 

Frowning, he replied, “Yes, but I don’t want you guys to disturb her. It’s a long ride from Tokyo, and she’ll be tired.” Kiyoko and Suga always felt guilty about tearing Yachi away from college every few months, Kiyoko more than anyone. Yachi always insisted that it was okay, and that it was a pleasure to help out somewhere. “By the way, you all need to clear out. Either sleep at Asahi’s house or stay in the main room, but you can’t stay in the hallway.”

Noya grinned, hopping to his feet. “Like a sleepover!”

Asahi groaned - he was far too old for this. “Not at my house, I have a bunch of work to do tomorrow and want to get more than four hours of sleep.” That reminded Suga of yet _another_ problem they had - Asahi had tried to identify the person that Yamaguchi and Tsukishima ran into at the abandoned house, but a fake identity popped up. He bit back a sigh, straightening up.

“We have some futons in the storage closet, and Kiyoko has spare blankets.” Suga hesitated, looking around at the group. Ennoshita and Asahi didn’t live in the apartments that were blown up, so they were free to leave. Noya seemed to brush off the whole incident with a grin, and Yamaguchi was too worried about Tanaka to care that he lost his entire home. The only person that would actually hate this was Tsukishima, for good reason. “We’re figuring out the living situations, so things should be back to normal in a few days.”

It was very unlikely that things would be back to normal in a few days, but Suga wasn’t one for good speeches. He usually left that to Daichi or even Tanaka. 

“And Nishinoya, take it easy, okay? We have a full schedule ahead of us this week and we already have one of our best members out of commission.” Suga glanced at the door to the infirmary. Noya and Tanaka usually were a pair, like Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, when going out on missions. Noya had been at this Agency for long enough that he could handle going on a mission by himself, but after the events of today, he knew Noya was far too tired to do something alone right away. But Karasuno needed him to stay strong - he was the guardian after all.

Nishinoya reached up to ruffle Suga’s hair. “Don’t worry about it boss, I’ll be all better by tomorrow!” Suga groaned as Noya skipped down the hall, an exasperated Asahi in his trail. Ennoshita sent an apologetic smile at Suga before following the two. 

“You two,” Suga called out after Yamaguchi and Tsukishima as they turned to walk down the hall. Yamaguchi turned around immediately, apparently still jumpy from today’s events. Tsukishima only stopped mid-step, still facing away from Suga as he addressed them. “I really hate to ask this, but I need you two to do something for me. It’s about Hinata.”

Yamaguchi whipped his head around, looking for the two mentioned before. “Oh, right. I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“Don’t tell me -” Tsukishima grumbled, turning to face Suga.

“Yes.” Suga crossed his arms. Sometimes Tsukishima’s attitude got to Suga, more days than others. “I want - need you two to find them. Hinata is still in danger and the best place for him would be staying here, at Karasuno. And well, Kageyama doesn’t have a house anymore, and we can’t leave him on the streets.”

Tsukishima mumbled under his breath, the circles under his glasses even more prominent than they usually are. If Tsukishima refused to go and find the two, then Yamaguchi would also refuse - then those two would probably be stuck on the street, and knowing Hinata, would get caught in trouble. Tsukishima reached into his back pocket, pulling out his phone.

“Fine. But if we don’t find him by three, we’re heading back.” Suga sighed, shoulders slumping. Better than nothing.

“And how are we supposed to find them? Sendai’s a big city.” Yamaguchi shifted his jacket, avoiding eye contact with Suga.

“Maybe check the college campus first?” Even though Kageyama wasn’t their first priority, Suga hoped that Hinata was smart enough to stick around someone who could protect him. _I’m already putting too much trust into that teenager - I should be able to handle this myself._ “If they’re not there, check the diners nearby. I think Hinata skipped out on lunch today.” If Suga were lucky, they would be hanging out just outside of Karasuno, but he seemed down on his luck these days.

Tsukishima suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, nodded slightly in Suga’s direction. “Right. Let’s go, Yamaguchi.” The pair headed down the hall, leaving Suga to lean against the cool wall. 

Suga stopped smoking a couple of years ago, but he desperately needed a smoke. He debated slipping into Kiyoko’s office to get an aspirin for his oncoming headache, but decided against it. Seeing Tanaka again wasn’t high on his list of things to do. Kiyoko was practically a mini hospital by herself, so even if they didn’t have Yachi, Tanaka would survive. He felt a tinge of guilt as he turned away from the door, heading toward the lobby.

The lobby was crowded with overgrown plants, courtesy of Suga’s mom who was a little too supportive of his first official job. They hadn’t died, despite being kept in the lobby with the shades almost always shut, and the multiple instances where they got knocked over or hadn’t been watered in days. It’s been five years since Suga joined Karasuno, and they were still alive, leading Suga to believe that his mother actually had a power of her own that allowed plants to stay alive forever. After a bit of investigating, he found that she could barely keep the vegetables in the back of her florist shop alive. 

He trailed a finger across one of the absurdly large leaves. His mother lived far from the city, in his small hometown, away from the dangers of his job. For the longest time, she bugged him to tell her more about his job. Suga’s a horrible liar too, so she probably thought he was selling drugs. Not far off, but still. 

“Hi, Sugawara.” Yachi appeared in front of him, soaking wet. Suga jumped a foot in the air - she came out of nowhere. “S-sorry!”

“No, it’s fine.” Suga chuckled, placing a hand over his racing chest. “Geez, is it raining?” 

Yachi looked down at her wet clothes, eyes widening. She only wore a light jacket over a pale blue dress that reached just below her knees. Her black shoes squished out rain as she shifted her weight, hiking her bag farther up her shoulder. “Don’t worry about me - is Tanaka still - still alive? Am I too late?”

Suga sighed. As always, Yachi worried about the extremes before what would be normal. “I told you, you could have waited until tomorrow morning to come. Tanaka’s alive. Kiyoko said he might need some work on his skin, and he has a few broken bones. One of his kidneys got crushed, but it’s minor and I know you can fix it. I’m sure there’s been worse.” Suga assured her with a pat on the shoulder as her eyes widened even further. Well, Suga knew there was much worse. He just wasn’t sure if Yachi had seen the ‘worse.’

“Don’t forget to take your time, Yachi. Take some breaks too. Go to see Noya soon, because he’s been into medical stuff recently and you know how he acts around Kiyoko. Maybe he’ll shut up if you bore him with a bunch of scientific details.” Suga laughed, stepping to the side to let Yachi pass. “Oh, and I’ll make french toast in the morning, as a treat.” 

  


___________

  
  


Just yesterday night, it felt like the summer was never going to end. Even in the dark, Tsukishima felt the effects of the sun. A cold breeze was relaxing rather than chilling, and he even questioned why Yamaguchi was still wearing his jacket. Tonight was different - he didn’t know if it was because of the looming buildings around him or climate change acting up again, but it was eerily cold.

Yamaguchi was snug in his leather jacket, wiping his windswept hair out of his eyes. Tsukishima sensed he was extra alert this night - he knew Yamaguchi felt responsible for Tanaka’s injury, since he technically could have predicted it. Often, Tsukishima wondered what he would do if he had Yamaguchi’s power. A part of him told himself that he would handle it a lot better than the green haired boy, but the other half of him doubted it. Sometimes Yamaguchi would wake up, muffling his own scream in a cold sweat after a day of using his precognition. Other times his hands would shake violently until Tsukishima pointed it out. And on really bad days, Yamaguchi wouldn’t speak at all. Tomorrow would be one of those days.

Tsukishima tightened his grip around the motorcycle handlebars. The motorcycle wasn’t his, it was Daichi’s, who would definitely get pissed if he knew that they were using it. But Tsukishima had taken the motorcycle enough times that he knew how to drive it safely, despite not having a license for it. The college wasn’t that far, but it was far enough that neither of them wanted to walk under streetlights in the cold for twenty minutes. 

“Come on.” Yamaguchi was still gazing toward Karasuno’s front door, hands in his pockets. 

He snapped to attention at Tsukishima’s voice. “Isn’t Yachi so pretty?”

Tsukishima rolled his eyes, frowning. Recently, Yamaguchi had a weird fixation on getting a girlfriend, and it was pissing him off. What would a girlfriend add to his life? Plus, he either had to hide what he did from her, or tell her about his job. He supposed Yachi already knew about the underworld of powers, but she lived all the way in Tokyo. Yamaguchi had a pretty busy life, even without a girlfriend. “I’m not into blondes.”

Yamaguchi laughed, the edges of his eyes crinkling up. He swung a leg over the back of the motorcycle, settling into the seat. “ _You’re_ a blond, Tsukki.”

“I’m not interested in dating myself.” The second half of his sentence almost got drowned out by the sound of the engine roaring to life. 

“You’re not interested in dating _anyone._ You never talk about anything romantic - and you always make fun of the rom-coms I watch.” His hot breath hit the back of Tsukishima’s neck as he wrapped his arms around his torso, the bike lurching forward. “Now that I think of it, you haven’t even had a crush since third grade.”   


Cold air swept against Tsukishima’s skin and ruffled his shirt as he picked up speed. Yamaguchi’s voice was still perfectly clear, as he rested his head on his shoulder. Tsukishima didn’t think much of it - Yamaguchi was pretty physical with everyone around him once he got comfortable, and the two have been friends for their entire lives. “Romance just isn’t interesting.” Tsukishima said that about most things in life, but for this, he meant it.

His parents only solidified that statement. His mother was only eighteen when she had Tsukishima, his father twenty years older than her. He watched as their relationship crumbled from a very young age, and ever since then, Tsukishima didn’t bother with anything love related. Yamaguchi didn’t know a lot about the situation with his parents, despite being there the entire time it happened, but he didn’t blame him for questioning why Tsukishima never took an interest in anyone.

Yamaguchi blew air out of his nose in amusement, the air tickling the nape of Tsukishima’s neck. He didn’t say anything more, instead lifting his head to watch the buildings and cars past in a blur of lights. Tsukishima focused his attention away from the mass of warmth on his back and stared hard at the road in front of him. He _would_ have brought a jacket, but it got blown up, along with the rest of his belongings. 

The thought of his apartment in shambles almost made him screech to a stop and turn back toward the Agency. At this point, Hinata deserved to be kidnapped. He nearly ruined Karasuno’s reputation at that meeting with the other groups of Sendai, and now he ruined almost all of Karasuno's member’s homes. Despite all of that, what pissed him off the most was the fact that Hinata, who joined a mere month ago, was getting more attention than himself.

He understood _why._ Hinata had an amazing power, while Tsukishima was only valued when he was with Yamaguchi because he was mildly skilled in combat. But it ignited a weird, foreign sense of rivalry. Shouldn’t he be fighting for his position as better than Hinata? Tsukishima supposed it didn’t matter. At the end of the day, he was getting paid the same as Hinata.

The feeling didn’t leave him as he turned left toward the college campus. “How much do you want to bet they’re not here?” Tsukishima asked, plastering a smirk on his face, as he slowed down in the parking lot. It was one in the morning on a Friday, so there were very few faces around. If there were, they were either drunk or high out of their minds. Tsukishima was glad he dropped out of college when he had the chance.

“Hmm, let’s check that grocery store. I feel like they wouldn’t be anywhere else around here.” Yamaguchi released his arms from around Tsukishima, leaning back in his seat. 

As it turned out, after they half-heartedly searched the grocery store, Hinata nor Kageyama were in that store. They walked out with Yamauguchi sipping a can of coffee and Tsukishima 200 yen poorer. Tsukishima took his time strolling into the parking lot, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looking around at the campus. He certainly wasn’t in a hurry to find Hinata or that snotty newbie either.

He didn’t want to ride around on that motorcycle for another two hours, searching for two idiots who’ve probably been kidnapped by now. Not to mention the temperature was still dropping, and all of his sweaters were burned in the explosion. His other clothes were gone too, so that meant he either had to buy more or borrow from one of the others, but Tsukishima was easily the tallest of Karasuno. Buying more clothes would just bankrupt him, and he would end up starving for a whole month. Maybe he could convince Suga to help him, but Suga never really interacted with him anyway. All of the other members avoided him too, not that he minded.

Wearing the same two outfits for a month didn’t sound ideal, but it was becoming one of the better options. He supposed Asahi had some oversized clothes, and it helped that he was talking to him more and more ever since the random attack at the abandoned house.

They still hadn’t figured out exactly who the attacker was, so the body was sitting in the makeshift morgue at the Karasuno Office. Asahi had called both Tsukishima and Yamaguchi into the morgue multiple times in the past day, asking an abundance of questions neither of them knew the answer to. The body freaked Tsukishima out more than he cared to admit. The body looked eerily similar to something he’d seen before - something that he wanted to forget very badly.

Yamaguchi sensed he was unnerved, bumping his shoulder into his arm. “Thanks for the drink, Tsukki.”

“Don’t blame me when you can’t get to sleep later,” Tsukishima grumbled. Despite his words, he knew that Yamaguchi wanted to avoid sleeping in any possible way. He used his power a lot more than he normally did, and that shift in the balance would guarantee that he wouldn’t get a good night’s rest, or a good morning after that. Since they would have to sleep in the main room along with everyone else, Yamaguchi didn’t want them to know about the after effects of using his power. Neither did Tsukishima - everyone would get far too worried over something that has happened to him for years.

“Oh - I ran into Asahi and he said that he found a substance in the attacker’s veins.” Tsukishima guessed that their attacker was on _something._ “It’s not a normal drug though. He’s still figuring it out, but he asked me to help out in his lab tomorrow. I’m not too excited to see that body again.” Yamaguchi admitted, crumpling the can in his free hand.

Asahi, one of the members at Karasuno who's been around the longest, rarely asked anyone for help. If he asked for help, it certainly wouldn’t be from any of the new members. Daichi or Nishinoya, being the only people who actually got a degree alongside Asahi, would be the ones to ask. But if he was asking Yamaguchi to help with identifying a drug, it either meant everyone else was super busy, or Daichi was trying to punish them for messing up a simple scout.

It was probably a mixture of both. “Tomorrow? No rest day after having our homes blown up?” Tsukishima scoffed, not bothering to mention the obvious set up from Daichi. Yamaguchi looked too enthused to be asked by Asahi to do something useful.

“I agree, but it’s already done and over with. All we can do is move on, and I’m sure Suga’s working hard to find us a replacement.” Yamaguchi brightened, tossing the can into a recycling bin.

Tsukishima frowned. It was so easy for Yamaguchi to say things like that - sometimes he could forget that he was one of the biggest worriers around. “I guess. It would be easier if Hinata wasn’t such an idiot that can’t control his power.” Yamaguchi laughed, the soft sound ringing out above the wind whipping past his ears. 

Yamaguchi stopped walking and turned toward Tsukshima. A shy smile appeared on his face, lifting the constellation of freckles on his cheeks higher. Tsukishima’s pulse froze - he barely made this face - what was warranting this? “Don’t get mad at me when I tell you this, okay?”

“Okay.” He struggled to keep his voice steady. Yamaguchi never caused trouble, so it couldn’t be anything horrible, right? It was probably something embarrassing or other things like that - he hoped.

“I knew that Hinata and Kageyama weren’t going to be in the store, I just wanted coffee. They aren’t on the campus.” Yamaguchi giggled, pressing his hands to his face as if he just admitted to having a junior high crush. 

Tsukishima let out a breath of relief before putting on a rare smile. “I can’t believe you’re using your power to trick me.” He _was_ surprised - back in their youth, Yamaguchi was the puniest thing around, all soft edges and quiet murmurs. Well, half of Yamaguchi was still like that. But now he was borderline manipulating Tsukishima into spending his money on him. _Amazing._

“Sorry, Tsukki!” He shrunk back into his jacket, peeking up at Tsukishima. 

_Ah. There’s the normal Yamaguchi._ “Well, I’d suggest sitting around until it’s three, but I know you’d rather look for the two bastards that caused this mess.” Tsukishima climbed onto Daichi’s motorcycle, it’s engine still giving off a pleasant warmth. The thought of riding around town again made him want to curl up on the ground and fall into a coma for a few days, but Yamaguchi’s frown lifted his head.

“I know you don’t like them, but Hinata’s a pretty important member of the group now. And if Kageyama joins Karasuno, it would take a lot of stress off of the other members. Well, maybe not Suga, because he’s going to have to teach both of them all of the procedures at the same time.” Yamaguchi rambled, the caffeine setting in. “But they could potentially help a lot, and we probably wouldn’t be paired with them since Hinata isn’t the type to scout -”

“Hey.” Tsukishima snapped, digging in the pocket of his pants. “You’re bleeding.”

Yamaguchi lifted a hand to his nose, wiping away a steady stream of blood he hadn’t noticed. Nosebleeds usually happen when he uses his hypersense power, or when something was about to happen. Occasionally, a nosebleed would slip out when Yamaguchi overused his precognition, which was probably the case now. But the pair both tensed up and glanced around the empty parking lot, just in case. 

Taking the pack of tissues from Tsukishima’s pocket, Yamaguchi moved closer to the bike. A chill swept down Yamaguchi’s spine, causing him to shiver like an autumn leaf. That’s when Tsukishima _really_ started to worry - shaking only happened after Yamaguchi woke up the day after overusing his power, not the night of. That’s how it’s been for _years,_ and something consistent like that doesn’t change overnight. 

“I don’t -” Yamaguchi shot out a hand to steady himself on the bike - “I don’t feel good.” The tissue he used was now stained dark red, the blood leaking onto his fingers. 

Tsukishima bit back a gag as blood formed around Yamaguchi’s left ear, dripping down his jaw. “I can _tell._ ” He muttered to himself before pulling Yamaguchi closer to him, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead. Tsukishima darted his eyes around the campus - it didn’t help that the street lamps were less than bright and the surrounding buildings had their lights off. “Do you see anything?”

Yamaguchi shuddered again as Tsukishima took his now hot fingers away from his forehead. “I think.” The trees around them seemed to rustle louder than before. “Michimiya’s diner - a - a panther?” He whispered, eyes glazed over. “There’s a lot of orange, and…” He trailed off, turning his head toward the campus. “Tsukki, there’s something over there.”

“Michimiya’s place? That’s just across the highway.” Tsukishima hung onto that specific part, furrowing his brow. “Daichi told all of us to avoid that place for at least six months. Why the hell would Hinata go _there,_ of all places? Doesn’t that shrimp hang out at the diner next to Asahi’s house?” Hinata was a troublemaker, but he didn’t go out of his way to break the rules, especially the ones set by Daichi. “And a panther? Panthers aren’t native to Japan, and they sure as hell wouldn’t be in the middle of the city.”

“I know - but someone’s over there, we need to go find Hinata.” Yamaguchi blanched, staring into thin air. 

“Shouldn’t we get you back to Kiyoko? That blood doesn’t look like it’s sto-”

Yamaguchi turned back to Tsukishima, a wild look in his eyes. “Trust me, I’m fine. Let’s go, _someone’s over there -_ ”

Two things happened at once. Across the highway, a unmistake beam of light shot into the air, disparcing like a firework. In the woods next to the parking lot, a person stumbled into the light, a blank and familiar look in their eyes. 

  


_____________

  


A few hours earlier, the front door to Karasuno’s office slammed shut. Hinata knocked at the door, but no one responded.

With a sigh, Hinata turned away from the door, toward Kageyama. “I knew he would be mad, but kicking us out?” Hinata whined, rubbing a hand against his chest. The center of his chest still itched, despite it being an hour after he healed himself. He was going to ask Kiyoko if there was something that could fix it, but Daichi decided that Hinata was a disgrace to the Karasuno Agency. Something along the lines of that - Hinata was too focused on keeping his power from exploding like it did earlier.

Kageyama blankly looked at the door, face set into a ‘what’s going on?’ look that Hinata had come to be _very_ annoyed by. His eyebrows were furrowed in the slightest, his unfairly nice blue eyes expressionless. He lifted his still bloodstained fingers to wipe away a stray piece of hair.

After Kageyama yanked out the bullet in Hinata’s chest, there was no trace of their blonde attacker around. Hinata didn’t think too much of it - he suspected that people would be after him ever since he first showed his power at the Miyagi conference. It was something that would be better handled by Daichi or Suga, but seeing as they’ve been kicked out of Karasuno for the time being, talking to them wasn’t really an option. Hinata couldn’t even contact anyone, because after everyone had evacuated the apartments, and the two were heading out of the office they jumped into, one last bomb went off, destroying the entire building. 

Luckily no one had died - only a few injuries ensued, but Hinata was curious as to how Tanaka was doing. He wasn’t _too_ worried about how he was, because Yachi could fix him, the same way she fixed him a couple of months ago. But guilt weighed heavy in his chest, knowing that he was only injured because people were after him.

“I have class tomorrow.” Kageyama said suddenly as Hinata strolled past him.

“Okay…” Hinata squinted up at Kageyama in confusion. “What does that have to do with me?”

Hinata dropped out of his third year in high school after his parents died. He hadn’t thought about school in a _long_ time. And he would rather not - Hinata sucked at every single subject. 

Kageyama’s eyes widened. “My textbooks - shit, those cost a lot! And my English essay is due tomorrow - I was almost done too.” In a flash, his hand swiped out and grabbed Hinata by the front of his shirt. “I move in with you for _five minutes_ and you manage to get the whole apartment blown up. And now we’re both homeless because you decided it would be a good idea to go against what that other shorty said.”

A couple crossed the street, eyeing the pair with curiosity and worry. Hinata glanced down at the hand fisted in his shirt, trying to squirm away. Key word, trying - Kageyama was a lot stronger than he originally thought he was. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry, just let - go!” With the last word, Hinata was shoved away from Kageyama, nearly landing flat on his ass. Hinata glared up at Kageyama, but averted his gaze once he returned the glare.

 _Geez, I didn’t realize it earlier, but this dude is intimidating._ Maybe it was because Hinata thought everyone more than six inches taller than him was scary, but Kageyama gave off a ‘stay the fuck away’ aura simply with his resting face. 

“Can’t you just go back to your dorm? And I’m sure those books didn’t cost _that_ much.” 

Kageyama sent another glare in Hinata’s direction, causing him to squeak and take a step away from him. “I already transferred out of my dorm, and the textbooks cost me an arm and a leg - have you even _thought_ about college?”

“Nope.” Hinata grinned cheekily, skipping past Kageyama. He came to a stop at a crosswalk, looking back over his shoulder. “Where should we go? It’s getting kind of cold.”

“We?” Kageyama questioned, yet he followed Hinata’s steps. “And honestly, I don’t know anything about the city. I mostly stayed in my dorm.” He paused as the light across from the turned green, and the cars rushed past them. “Do you have any family or friends around here? Either that, or I’ll have to take the train home.” He mumbled the last part to himself, so that Hinata had to strain his ears to hear him.

The crosswalk light turned green. Hinata frowned, jogging to the other sidewalk. All of his friends around here were a part of Karasuno, since he grew up a good distance from the city. He supposed that he still had family in the city - Natsu, who lived with Ukai and Takeda uptown. It’s been three months, and he still wasn’t ready to face his thirteen year old sister. He doubted he would ever be.

Once they reached the other sidewalk, Hinata turned around and attempted to lighten his face. “My parents are dead, and I don’t have many friends outside Karasuno since I only moved here two months ago. What about you?”

Kageyama’s scowling face softed for a moment. “Oh - er, my family lives in the countryside.” Hinata hid a snort. He expected condolences or even a short ‘sorry’ but Kageyama just ignored the first part of his statement. If anything, he was glad Kageyama hadn’t said anything about his parents, since every time he had to explain his parents were dead, they would always say the same thing. _I’m so sorry,_ or, _are you okay?_

Of course Hinata was okay. If he wasn’t okay, he would have shown it by now. 

“So we’re homeless now, and we know that someone is actively trying to kidnap us.” Hinata was wondering how Kageyama was coping with all of this new information, considering it was only yesterday that Hinata got shot in that campus grocery store trying to save Kageyama. Hinata knew that when he found out about his powers, he was way out of whack for a couple of weeks. He still was, in a way.

“ _Us_? They’re trying to kidnap you, idiot. I’m not involved in this in any way, anymore.” Hinata half-expected Kageyama to turn and walk the other direction after saying that, but he still followed Hinata as he turned the corner.

“But that blondie said that he’s going to watch out for you next time, didn’t he?” Hinata stopped abruptly and faced Kageyama, who narrowly avoided bumping into him at the last second. “Daichi would tell you to go home - out of the city.”

A flicker of panic crossed Kageyama’s eyes and Hinata considered himself fully interested in the stranger. Because they _were_ strangers, strangers who happened to be forced together over the past two days. They’ve already been in two life-threatening situations, and they’ve already saved each other twice. Hinata wanted to know more about this stranger.

“I can’t.”

Hinata laughed. “ _I_ never told you to go home. In fact, if there’s anyone who I could wander the streets of Sendai with, it would be you. Because I can use my power safely with you around, of course.” He added quickly with a blush as Kageyama took a step back, flustered.

“Dumbass.” Kageyama stammered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Do you go around saying that to everyone?” 

“I have a name, you know. It’s _Hinata_ , not one of your three insults you have.”

“Whatever.” Kageyama glowered, crossing his arms across his chest. “Do you have any idea of where we could stay for the night? I’ll have to reapply for a dorm and...talk to my parents.” He muttered the part about his parents, scowl deepening. But Hinata wasn’t focused on that aspect - he was focused on how Kageyama hesitated before saying ‘we.’ It wasn’t a hard word to say, so why was he struggling to say it? 

Everything about Kageyama was aggravatingly interesting. He popped out of nowhere, tried to save Hinata from five hitmen who were _much_ bigger than him, trusted Hinata enough to let him jump across a four lane street, and now he was following Hinata around town after being kicked out of Karasuno. But he was still glaring, at nothing in particular, everytime Hinata glanced at him. His temper changed like crazy, too - one moment he was pissed that Hinata had gotten his books blown up, and the next, he was asking Hinata where he could stay for the night. And what was even more interesting was how he managed to still look decent after surviving a blown up apartment building and almost getting shot - wait, no, that’s off topic.

Hinata peered up at Kageyama, who was blankly staring past him. He only had a day to figure out Kageyama Tobio - that surely could be enough.

Beside, he had somewhere he wanted to check out, somewhere he knew he didn’t want to go along. “There’s this diner across the highway near your school. I’ve heard they serve really good food, and I’m starving.”

He didn’t know if the diner served good food. All he’s heard about Michimiya’s diner was _stay away for at least six months_ and _Hinata, I swear to god, if you go around that area, I’ll beat your ass,_ from Suga. Of course, curiosity got the better of him, and Hinata did research - a rare occasion, but it was worth it. The diner was hiding something important, and since Daichi told Hinata to ‘get the hell out’ he assumed that Suga’s rules didn’t apply to him anymore.

The two trekked past the towering buildings around them, passing highways and cars, to the darker part of town. Hinata wasn’t sure if it was darker because of the passage of time, or because the aura around this area was actually denser. The walk took far longer than it should have, since Hinata stopped in the middle of the sidewalk every few minutes to look around in wonder, as if he never saw a neon sign or transmission tower in his two months of living in Sendai. 

Truth was, Hinata spent most of those two months staying inside of Karasuno’s office, while Suga drilled some information he easily forgot into his head every day. That became apparent to Kageyama when Hinata’s eyes lit up and he almost slapped Kageyama when he whipped his arm out to point at the sea just over the treeline. 

Kageyama grumbled and snapped his hand away from his arm, as if he wanted to avoid touching Hinata at all costs. They continued their way down the hill, the light quickly disappearing behind the horizon. With the light gone, the wind picked up, freezing the tips of Hinata’s nose and ears.

Soon they arrived at the diner - it’s lights were pale yellow and flickering and _exactly_ the type of thing Hinata saw in that horror movie Noya forced him to watch a week ago. He shifted toward Kageyama, hoping a serial axe murder wouldn’t burst out those doors. 

“Are you sure it's… open?” Kageyama raised an eyebrow at the diner. It’s exterior was - questionable, to say the least. The white paint was peeling off the walls, and weeds poked out from under the foundation. The only sign of functionality was the fresh flyers pasted on the glass door, and the fluorescent lights streaming out the grimy windows. There was a faded sign, with ‘Crow’s Corner’ inscribed onto it.

Under Kageyama’s dubious question was another question, asking, ‘Do you really eat here?’ Whatever Hinata expected when the others were talking about Michimiya’s diner, it wasn’t this. 

“Let’s check it out.” Hinata forced himself to be optimistic - he’s been thinking about this diner ever since Daichi first warned him to avoid it. He was this close to getting an answer as to why he had to avoid it for a specific amount of time, and what was actually in the diner.

Hinata yanked the door open, the faint ring of bells above him. Inside, there was no movement, no people except for a bored-looking woman who lifted her head from her palm with furrowed brows.

Inside of the diner was much more inviting than the outside. The hardwood floors were polished and _not_ rotting, like Hinata expected. The walls weren’t peeling or molding, inside a warm beige similar to the restaurants Tanaka and Nishinoya dragged Hinata along to when they didn’t want to cook, which was often. In fact, nothing was strange about the diner. 

Except for the fact that a light layer of dust covered all of the tables, and the person at the counter promptly walked into the back once she saw the pair step in. 

“Move, so I can close the door.” Kageyama elbowed Hinata in the back, pushing him forward. The door closed behind them, and Kageyama glanced around the diner. “Where is everyone?”

Hinata didn’t know - it was a Thursday night, not the most popular night to go out to eat, but every restaurant usually had at least one customer during dinner. Hinata swiped his fingers across the nearest table. A considerable amount of dust came away, confirming Hinata’s suspicions. This diner certainly wasn’t a normal one, although he should have known that by the constant warnings from Daichi and Suga. 

He assumed that the two had something against the owner, or something petty like that. But something else was going on here.

“Hello!” An oddly cheery voice called out. It wasn’t the girl at the counter, instead a much shorter woman walked over, short hair curling around her ears. “I’m afraid we were just closing for today.”

The woman’s face twitched as she shifted her gaze from Hinata to Kageyama, and back again. Behind her, Kageyama noticed two other girls peeking out of the kitchen doorway. Suddenly, he wished that he had some weapon, a knife, a bat, whatever - just something to defend himself. All he had was his fists. He supposed he shouldn’t be intimidated by a bunch of women around Hinata’s height, but something about them was strange.

Hinata didn’t notice the other girls, instead grinned at the woman. “You’re Michimiya, right?”

Michimiya’s eyes widened, and she shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “Yes. What’s yours?” Her voice hardened - Hinata wasn’t supposed to know her name already.

He hesitated, glancing around the room. The whole situation was already iffy - the dust on the table, the girls peeking from the kitchen door, the deteriorating outside - he’d already confirmed something suspicious was going on at this diner. Was it worth it to stick around? He didn’t have Karasuno backing him anymore, and even if Daichi was feeling kinder, if he asked him for help after going to the one place they told him not to, there was no way Daichi would help him.

“My name is Kageyama Tobio, and that’s Hinata. Shouyou.” He added, like saying his first name was challenging. “Er, nice to meet you.”

Hinata never wanted to turn around and slap Kageyama so badly.

“Hinata, from Karasuno?” Michimiya’s voice turned panicked, and she took several steps back. “Daichi told all of his members to - what the hell are you doing here?”

“Don’t tell him! Or Suga - or anyone, just forget it!” Hinata spun on his heel and darted out the door. On the way out, he tugged Kageyama’s elbow, with regret, and pulled him along.

The air was considerably colder than when they were last outside, a mere two minutes ago. The wind howled against Hinata’s ears as he yanked Kageyama into the space between the diner and another rusted building, shrinking into the dark.

“You weren’t supposed to say our names!” Hinata exclaimed over the wind, practically bouncing around the alleyway. Michimiya would tell Daichi, and his life would be ended in the next four hours. Despite not having a power, Daichi was one of the strongest people at Karasuno, both in connections and physically. The head would no doubt, pummel Hinata six feet into the ground.

Kageyama was still dumbfounded by the exchange. “Well, you weren’t saying anything and it was getting awkward! You should have told me we weren’t supposed to be there in the first place.” He huffed, leaning against the wall. 

He wouldn’t have if Hinata expected things to south that quickly. But, for some reason, he thought strolling into the diner and taking a look around would go smoothly. Obviously it didn’t, because now both of them were freezing in a dark alley - with nowhere to go for the night. Hinata should apologize, but he couldn’t bring himself to when he saw that same irritating scowl on Kageyama’s face.

Hinata rubbed his arms, burrowing himself into his shirt. “We’re going to die out here.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“I - mine.” Hinata mumbled, turning his face away from the taller boy’s. “Well, if you - what the -”

A screen lit up in the dark. A boy sat atop an abandoned cart, legs crossed and eyes focused on the device. His hair, blonde with a severe need to touch up on the dark roots, gently brushed against his neck with the wind. He didn’t look up as Hinata jumped back, a soft glow emitting from his frame.

The boy looked at peace among the dark of the alleyway, as if his device in front of him was the only thing in the world.

“Oh, is that a game?” Hinata exclaimed, darting to get a closer look. The boy shied away, tipping his screen away from the excitable red-head. “I’m Hinata Shouyou - what’s your name?”

A few feet away, Kageyama scoffed. _Who can walk up to someone in the middle of the night and be all friendly to a stranger? Hinata, that’s who._

The boy finally looked up, a blank look on his face. His eyes darted to Kageyama - he hadn’t even noticed him there. “Kozume.” Hinata looked expectantly. “Kenma.” He added with a mumble, looking back at his screen. 

There was a beat of silence as Hinata leaned toward Kenma again, squinting at the bright screen. “So,” He started, settling himself down on a crate next to Kenma, “Whatcha doing here?”

Kageyama furrowed his brow. Was he trying to score a place to stay? Or was Hinata always this friendly toward everyone? Beside that, Hinata was still being chased by kidnappers. They couldn’t exactly trust just anyone - but Hinata didn’t seem to be wary of the boy. _I guess I have to do the worrying,_ Kageyama thought.

“Um.” Kenma obviously was weirded out by the situation too. “I’m waiting for someone.” His eyes flickered away from his game for a millisecond - he finally realized that Hinata was glowing, ever so slightly.

Hinata grinned. He didn’t notice Kenma tense up. “Really? Do you live around -”

Before he could get the words out, he was knocked to the ground, with more force than he’s ever felt. The shock was almost as heavy as when Hinata fell out of the Miyagi Conference, except this time he _wasn’t_ falling. There was something on top of him, and _ow, I think my ear hit the ground first._

He shot a hand up wildly, the light around him steadily growing. Someone yelled out, probably Kageyama, but Hinata couldn’t pinpoint it since it came from his right side, the ear that was slammed into the ground. The ringing didn’t stop - in fact, it only grew louder as Hinata pulled himself to his hands and knees.

The light ricocheted off the building and dissipated into the night sky. Caught off guard, the ground beneath him burned, leaving behind dark scorch marks. Panic rose in his chest and he whirled around, climbing to his feet. 

A low growl sounded from the side - Hinata couldn’t pinpoint exactly where it came from, or what it was, but he jumped away and channeled his energy into his hands. Well, he tried to. He ended up blasting the trash cans behind whatever was attacking him, propelling himself into a pile of rubbish. Some jabbed into his back, and a faint warm trickle ran down his side.

Hinata forced his eyes wide open. Kageyama was near the street, far from the attacker. It wasn’t like Kageyama was being targeted - Hinata was, and he was almost positive that another person was trying to kidnap him. _On the same day - a bit excessive,_ Hinata thought.

“Kuro, stop -”

The attacker was a _panther._ A _panther,_ in the middle of Sendai. Hell - panthers weren’t even native to Japan? Could one possibly have escaped a zoo? Or someone _let_ the panther out - whatever it was, Hinata wasn’t going to wait around to get mauled by the beast. He charged forward, the tips of his hands turning into the familiar void of orange.

The panther reared back on its hind legs, huge muscles moving under a smooth, sleek coat of black fur. It towered over Hinata, who wasn’t that tall in the first place, and bared it’s sharp teeth. Hinata was an arm’s length away from brushing against the panther’s torso, aiming to cause void-orange scars across it’s chest. Suddenly, the ringing in his ear cleared, and he heard Daichi’s sharp voice. 

_Never aim to kill or badly injure, even in self defense, Hinata. There’s always a way around._

Was there? Hinata hesitated for a moment, and that was enough time.

Enough time for Kageyama to yank his wrist toward him, pushing him to the street. Hinata’s glow disappeared, the warmth leaving his bones, and confusing both Hinata and the panther long enough for Kageyama to take off running down the street, Hinata in tow.

“You’re - so -” Kageyama breathed out as he continued sprinting down the street - “dumb!” He exclaimed, turning a corner and nearly running into...Kenma. Along with another person, much taller in stature. “Holy shit, weren’t you just - you were just in the -”

Hinata jumped behind Kageyama’s back and clenched the bottom of the other’s shirt. This new guy next to Kenma was horribly intimidating - minus the eight inches he had on him, his grin was almost malicious, his bright hazel eyes pinning themselves to Hinata. 

“Sorry about that, I thought you were harassing Kenma.” He rested a hand on Kenma’s shoulder, who simply shrugged and looked at his feet.

Kageyama tried to shake Hinata off his back, to no avail. “Who are you?”

“I’m Kuroo - oh, you mean that!” He laughed, and Hinata shivered at the sound. “I have the ability to transform into a panther, so that was me back there.” Kuroo peeked over Kageyama’s shoulder. “You almost got me, you know? Not like I would lose against you.”

Hinata took the bait and stepped out from behind Kageyama. “I could definitely take you on - I mean, you’re just a _panther._ ”

“He doesn’t mean that,” Kageyama pleaded, whacking the shorter one on the back of the head. 

Kuroo eyed Kageyama with interest before looking back at Hinata. “So you’re a part of Karasuno, right? How’s Sawamura doing?”

 _He knew that I’m a part of Karasuno - well,_ was _a part of Karasuno._ Even though Hinata didn’t pay a lot of attention when Suga told him about the other groups in the area, he sure as hell didn’t remember a tall, spiky haired panther on the list of people in the area with powers. “Who are you?” Hinata repeated Kageyama’s question. Kuroo, nor Kenma, was trying to actively kidnap Hinata, and neither of them seemed to recognize Kageyama. Maybe they were different from the sniper earlier that day - he sincerely hoped they were, because Hinata wasn’t sure if he could take yet another kidnapping attempt.

The roar of a motorcycle interrupted Kuroo’s loud laugh. Hinata’s eyes snapped to the road next to them.

Daichi’s motorcycle was an unpleasant sight, because at first Hinata thought that Daichi and Suga were finally coming to beat Hinata’s ass. Then, he sighed a breath of half relief once he realized it was only Tsukishima and Yamaguchi. It was only half relief, because the both of them were soaking in blood, Tsukishima a little less than Yamaguchi. 

Tsukishima skidded to a stop, whipping a knife out of his belt, and pointed it at the two strangers. “Don’t move.” His voice attempted to be threatening, but his hands shook as he stalled the engine. Fresh blood splattered against the white of his shirt, and his hands were practically dunked in red. A small cut formed just above his eyebrow, and he smeared the blood with his free hand as it dribbled near his eye.

Yamaguchi was a little worse for wear. Half of his face was hidden in the back of Tsukishima’s shirt, but the half that Hinata could see was covered in red. Hinata knew that Yamaguchi occasionally had nosebleeds due to his power, but was his power the cause of the tons of blood on his face? It seemed unlikely, but as far as he could tell, Yamaguchi didn’t have any injuries. As Tsukishima hopped off the motorcycle, Hinata could now see that Yamaguchi was shaking violently.

What had they gotten into? Obviously something worse than whatever Hinata and Kageyama stumbled into.

“Oh? Who’s this?” Kuroo almost laughed, completely relaxed even though a knife was pointed at him. _He_ should _be scared,_ Hinata thought, watching as Tsukishima poised himself to fight. If Tsukishima pointed a knife at Hinata, he would be freaking out - but in Kuroo’s defense, he hadn’t seen Tsukishima in action. If Hinata envied anyone at Karasuno, it would be Tsukishima.

Tsukishima flitted his gaze toward Kageyama and Hinata, scowling, before looking back at Kuroo. “You two aren’t from around here.” 

“Let’s leave, Kuro.” Kenma muttered, so quietly that Hinata had to strain his ears for a moment to hear him. “We’re done looking around here.”

Kuroo frowned, looking over his shoulder. “It’s not here?” When Kenma didn’t respond, his mouth quirked up into a smirk. He turned toward Tsukishima, nodding his head slightly. “Well, I hope to see you around - whatever your name is. I’d say it’s pretty bold to leave your friend open when you’re threatening someone else.” In a blink, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Yamaguchi. “And just like that, he could’ve been dead.”

Hinata saw it coming from a mile away - if there was one thing Tsukishima cared about, it was Yamaguchi. At least, as far as Hinata could tell - Tsukishima never showed his emotions. What other reason would Tsukishima let Yamaguchi stick around him for so long? Faster than Kuroo had pulled out his gun, Tsukishima’s knife went flying into Kuroo’s right hand, embedding itself into his palm. The gun clattered to the ground, and behind Hinata, Kageyama flinched. 

Another knife was already in Tsukishima’s hand, this time a lot unsteadier. He shifted himself to be in front of Yamaguchi now. Tsukishima glared at Kuroo as he recoiled, swearing and clutching his hand to his chest. _I’ll do it again,_ his eyes dared.

Stepping forward, Hinata attempted to de-escalate. “Let’s just -”

“You learn pretty quickly, blondie.” Kuroo seethed, stepping back. “Now I _really_ want to meet you again.” His hand turned black, and grew two times larger into a panther’s paw. The knife was rejected from his hand, and fell to the sidewalk. “Let’s go, Kenma. I’m proud of Sawamura for getting such a good team of newbies.”

As they turned the corner, Kenma said, “I haven’t met him, you keep forgetting that.” 

Nobody made a move to follow them. Hinata stared at the corner they turned for a long moment before turning warily to Tsukishima.

“So,” Hinata started cautiously, “What brings you here?” What he really wanted to ask was ‘are you okay?’ but he knew Tsukishima would only glare at him for asking such an obvious question.

Tsukishima glared anyway, turning back to Yamaguchi. “Suga wanted us to find you two, and it was pretty easy once we saw the _obvious_ beam of light over here. And who the hell were those two?”

Hinata shrugged, looking back at Kageyama. To his surprise, Kageyama was completely blank - he swayed slightly with the night wind, but his eyes just followed the scene. “The one with dyed blonde hair is Kenma, and the one who almost shot Yamaguchi is Kuroo.”

“You know what I mean - where are they from? How do they know Daichi?”

He shrugged again, opening his mouth to respond. Instead, Kageyama interrupted him.

“If he knew, he would have told you by now.” He grounded out, crossing his arms. 

Hinata jumped up, looking between the two. “Oi, there’s no reason to -”

“Whatever.” Tsukishima snapped, wiping his brow. More blood came away, and he cursed. “Suga wants to see you, apparently - I don’t know what possessed you two to leave the office right after Hinata was almost kidnapped, but he needs you back. For whatever reason.” He muttered under his breath, tapping on Yamaguchi’s shoulder. He was out cold.

Hinata sure as hell didn’t want to tell him that Daichi kicked them out in a rage after ruining their apartments, so he nodded. At least they wouldn’t be sleeping on the streets tonight.

  


__________

  
  


Daichi passed out the moment Suga left his office to ask Tsukishima and Yamaguchi to find the two troublemakers. He told himself that it was the stress that sent him to sleep, not his age. He wasn’t exactly old, but ever since Hinata joined Karasuno, it felt like ten years of his life had been snatched from him. 

He woke up the next day to chaos - he’d been expecting that. But he wasn’t expecting Yamaguchi to be in the infirmary next to Tanaka, nor Hinata, who avoided his gaze at all costs, to tell him that a man named Kuroo attacked them.

Amongst the chaos, Daichi sniffed out french toast.

No - he had to focus on the problems at hand. Breakfast could wait.

“So this Kuroo, he had a power where he could turn into a black panther?” Daichi averted his eyes from the office door and looked at the two boys in front of him. The both of them had gotten about two hours of sleep, but Hinata was far more energetic than Kageyama, who was slumped in his chair, eyes half closed.

Hinata nodded. When he first entered Daichi’s office, he assumed that Daichi was going to yell at them again - luckily for them, Daichi was far too groggy to raise his voice. The sight of Suga’s disappointed frown when he told him that he kicked the two out lingered in the back of his head, and shame kept him from releasing his anger. Beside, the pair had been through enough already, and would be going through a lot more this week. 

“I might as well tell you two about him, if he’s in town.” Kuroo being in Sendai was beyond strange, and Daichi wasn’t going to lie and say everything was okay if he was in town. “Kuroo is the head of the Nekoma Mafia, and Kozume is probably also a part of Nekoma.” Daichi hadn’t met Kozume, and assumed he was new - although, the last time Daichi had a run in with Nekoma was years ago. Daichi wasn’t even a head at the time.

Kageyama’s previously drooped eyes opened wide. “Mafia?”

“Don’t worry about extra names, although they certainly deal with shadier things than us.” Daichi shuffled through the papers on his desk, which was an absurd amount. 

When it came down to it, Nekoma wasn’t supposed to be in Sendai. They had everything they needed in Tokyo, so for them to be around here was worrying. Especially around Michimiya’s diner. The thought of the diner gave Daichi another headache - Hinata went to that diner, even though Daichi had drilled it into his mind to avoid that place at all costs. He held back a yell, clenching his fists. 

“Any sign of powers from Kozume?” When the pair shook their heads, Daichi decided to end the obviously useless conversation, and focused on the day ahead of him.

He dug around his desk drawers. They were a mess, and definitely had more loose leaf paper than he needed. Today was going to be busier than he originally planned, but that seems to be the norm nowadays. Daichi had to check in with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, since apparently they got attacked by another drugged up person. It wouldn’t hurt to see how Yamaguchi was doing, since he overused his power yesterday by a ton. Then he had to ask Asahi if he made any developments on the corpse in his office, or if there were any changes in their computer system. Maybe he would stop by and ask Noya to help Asahi with making specialized weapons - no, Asahi already had enough on his hands, although it would be nice to finally get ahead on weaponry. Noya couldn’t do it by himself, either, since he would end up goofing off. The only time he managed to focus was when he was with Asahi. 

Then he needed to ask Ennoshita to go to Narita’s place and ask about apartments and new clothing, because Suga was busy with Yachi and Kiyoko, and would eventually have to leave the office to escort Yachi to the train station. Tensions between Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa weren’t getting any better, and it would be a death wish to have their best healer on the streets alone. 

The most pressing task was taking Kageyama to get registered. He hated that he had to induct Kageyama after a few short days, but conflict in Sendai was getting worse, and Karasuno could always use more hands. Plus, Daichi had a plan for him. A shaky plan that he put together only a few days ago and hadn’t revised it since, but a plan nevertheless. 

Daichi grinned, the first smile of the day, as he pulled out a pass, and a pack of opened gummies. “Hinata.” He stuck out his hand with the packet of gummy bears. “Have some.”

After a brief moment of confusion, he eagerly snatched the snack out of his hand and tipped it into his mouth. Through a mouthful, he asked, “Why?”

“I thought you might like them.” More like Daichi needed Hinata to stay subdued for the day while Kageyama was out with Daichi getting signed up and registered. The gummies were sleep-gummy bears that Asahi and Noya failed to make correctly, and only made the person who eats them a lot calmer. Kageyama wouldn’t be around to mute Hinata’s timebomb of a power, and Daichi didn’t want the office to be set on fire today.

They would set in after a few minutes, long enough for Daichi to escape the building before Suga or Asahi yelled at him for actually drugging someone. “They’re not for you,” Daichi waved Kageyama’s hand, which was inching toward the bag of gummies, away. Both of them raised their eyebrows.

“Hinata, I need you to head next door, to the bar. Wait in the booth closest to the bar, and say hi to Saeko for me.” If Daichi was lucky, Hinata would only be waiting in that booth for a few minutes before he passed out. Tanaka’s sister, Saeko, ran the bar and would take care of him for the day. 

He added ‘telling Saeko to not freak out when Hinata passes out in her bar’ onto his list of things to do. 

Hinata’s eyes lit up - he assumed that whatever he was doing was important. “Yes, sir!” He bolted out of his seat, and Kageyama stood up next to him. They were already getting along - both a blessing and a curse for Daichi.

“You, Kageyama, stay. We have something else to do today.”

Hinata looked back over his shoulder, mouth opening slightly. “Wait, don’t tell me he’s - that’s not fair! I had to wait an entire month!”

He was right - it wasn’t fair, nor normal. Inducting someone into Karasuno after a few days wasn’t ideal. Even Hinata’s month-long wait period had been shorter than average, but things around here were escalating. And if his suspicions were right, Karasuno needed more hands on deck than ever. Since Tanaka was out of commission, hopefully only for a few days, and Asahi wasn’t ready to use his own power yet, Daichi had no choice but to speed up the process.

“Take the side door to the bar, Hinata. Try not to get kidnapped.” Daichi tried to lighten his mood, but Hinata only frowned. He left the room after muttering something about being under twenty and not being able to drink.

Daichi turned to Kageyama. Although he barely talked to the kid, and him causing more trouble in two days than anyone in the history of Karasuno, he felt bad about his situation. Kageyama got wrapped up in all of this so quickly, and Daichi couldn’t read what he was actually feeling. He didn’t even know if the kid wanted to be a part of Karasuno, which came to his first question.

“I’ll just get right into, then. I want you to join Karasuno.” Daichi paused, searching for any change in expression on Kageyama’s face - nothing, except for a twitch in his eyebrow. “If you choose to do so, you’ll have to quit college. Karasuno’s protection will be extended to you for as long as you are in the Agency, and is also extended to any family members you wish. If you refuse, you have to sign a contract that says that you’ll stay quiet about your power, and everyone else’s power. There’s some stuff detailing the punishment if you tell people about powers, but I can’t list it off of my head.” A lie - Daichi knew that rule like the back of his hand. He just didn’t want to repeat it to Kageyama, and instead slid the paper toward him.

“Normally the process wouldn’t go like this. There are usually a lot more steps to join Karasuno, so consider yourself lucky.” Kageyama peered at the paper, nose scrunching. “And I’d hate to pressure you, but I need an answer by today.”

Kageyama kept his eyes on the paper, eyes trailing down the length of it. “I’ll join.”

Daichi quietly let out a breath before composing himself. Everytime he had to ask someone to join, a ball of guilt unfurled in his chest. Especially for someone so young, like Kageyama. Daichi had to remind himself that he was only fifteen when he joined Karasuno - but it still hurt to see it happen in front of him. “Great.” It _was_ great, in the scheme of things. But how long would it be before Kageyama regretted joining?

“I’m going to have to work with that dumbass, aren’t I?”

“Yes.” Daichi replied sternly. “No one goes out alone, we’re a team here at Karasuno.” Already, Daichi started to worry about Kageyama and Hinata. Kageyama seemed like the type to only care about himself, kind of like Tsukishima. In Tsukishima’s case, the only person he cared for was Yamaguchi, which was the only reason that Daichi allowed him to be in Karasuno. Daichi could only hope that Kageyama would start to care - care about Hinata, about _anyone_ in the Agency. That was the only way, no matter how horrible it sounded, that Kageyama could stick around.

“I know about teams.” Kageyama scowled, glancing down at his shoes. Daichi doubted it, from the distant look in his eyes. “I got into college early for volleyball - I… play on the team.”

The way Kageyama hesitated when saying the second half of his sentence made Daichi raise his eyebrows. “You’re okay with giving that up?” 

Kageyama bit the inside of cheek. “I think.” Daichi nodded, despite knowing that rushing Kageyama into Karasuno was the worst thing for him. He _needed_ to, but everytime he told himself that, it sounded horrible. “Hinata’s kidnappers are probably going after me, too.”

“What?” This was new information that should have been said to him the moment he woke up. “Say that again.”

“The sniper told me that he’s going to watch out for me next time.” Kageyama muttered, leaning back in his chair as Daichi leaned forward. “Then he disappeared after calling for ‘Hoshiumi.’ Or, at least, I think that's what he said.”

Daichi grabbed his phone from the desk and texted Asahi. _Look up Hoshiumi in the database asap._ The time at the top of the screen grabbed his attention. 9:30. If he didn’t get a move on soon, the day would be wasted, and god knows how long registering Kageyama would take.

“Next time, tell me if someone’s threatened you at the _start_ of the conversation.” Daichi didn’t have it in him to scold him thoroughly, so he simply stood up and started toward the door. “Come on, we have to go further downtown to Date Tech.” When Kageyama stared back blankly, Daichi explained further. “They’re a branch of the local government that registers all people with powers. It’s highly illegal to not register, even if you want to live a normal life.” There was also the matter of properly inducting Kageyama into Karasuno. That process didn’t happen in a lot of other groups, but it was extra security for the members. They wouldn’t have to use scare tactics when dealing with the police, like Shiratorizawa did, and it came with a lot more less-shady connections.

Despite the obvious benefits of registering Kageyama in Karasuno, he hated going to the Date Tech building. For one, the train to the building was one of the most packed at all times, and since it was a Friday, the train would be filled with annoying high schoolers and middle schoolers who liked to go out for the weekend. The Date Tech building was too cold all of the time, and their employees generally hated anyone with a power. As a rule, no one who worked there could have an ability. Originally, Daichi thought that rule was stupid, but he eventually found out that no one could possibly want to work there, anyway.

As he slipped out of his office, Kageyama trailing behind him, he texted Saeko about Hinata, and checked Asahi’s contact for a response. There was nothing, but he read the text. Asahi had a habit of doing things when Daichi asked, but never responding. He trusted that Asahi was working at it, but normally it would take a few seconds to look a name in the database. 

Outside of Karasuno, the streets buzzed a lot louder than normal. Yesterday was the first cool day since the beginning of summer, and everyone took the chance to walk around in the weakening sun before Sendai could get too cold. It relaxed Daichi to see the people walking around, unafraid even with the threat that loomed over Karasuno’s shoulders. They were doing their jobs right.

“Um.” Kageyama caught up to Daichi, who was walking at a quick pace. He wanted to avoid the rush on the train that came around brunch time - a quiet train would give him time to sort his thoughts, since he woke up and immediately got bombarded with information. “It’s a bit late to ask, but what exactly does Karasuno do?”

It was a bit late to ask - for all Kageyama knew, they could have been a drug cartel. Although they didn’t exactly give off that type of energy. But it was partially Daichi’s fault that he hadn’t told him earlier. “Right. Karasuno’s a detective agency, in a way. We deal with things too dangerous for the regular police, and those things often involve powers. Sometimes they don’t, but it mostly is dealing with rogue individuals with powers or the other groups around here. Don’t get too caught up on the ‘detective’ part,” Daichi added as Kageyama tilted his head. In reality, Kageyama was one of the more observant people around at Karasuno - Daichi noticed by the way he scanned each room before entering it, watching the people around him. Everyone else mostly gained their detective skills over the years, except for Tsukishima, who was a near natural at it. A few months and Kageyama could be one of the greatest assets to Karasuno.

“For example, Suga and I are going to investigate a bomb threat tomorrow - don’t freak out, it’s most likely a fluke.” Kageyama’s eyes widened nevertheless. “Even if it is real, I have more than ten years of experience diffusing bombs - you’ll probably learn how to in a month.”

Daichi suppressed a groan as they found their way to the platform. Going out to investigate a most likely fake bomb threat tomorrow would just waste his time. He was tempted to send Suga out by himself, or maybe ask Ennoshita to go instead. 

But Karasuno was a team, he reminded himself. No one goes out alone. Not again.

They rode the train in silence, and unluckily were placed in a car with a group of giggling high schoolers who skipped their final day of the week at school. He frowned at the familiar black blazers and gray trousers and skirts. Daichi grew up in the heart of Sendai - it’s all he’s known for all his years alive. He knew every school around town well, but those uniforms struck a chord. They weren’t his high school uniform, but instead Suga’s. 

Daichi remembered the first time he met Suga. Daichi just recently joined Karasuno, and was constantly a bundle of nerves. One day he stayed too late in the Karasuno training room, and ended up passing out there instead of going home. Luckily, the former head made up an excuse for Daichi to his parents, and sent him to school. He ran to the train station, and unfortunately ran right into Suga on his way.

They crashed together, but were lucky enough to not fall to the ground. Suga was wearing that same black blazer and gray trousers. Right as they crashed into each other, Daichi felt a weightlessness in his bones for the entire day. Three years later, when Suga joined Karasuno, he realized that it wasn’t Suga’ angelic appearance that made him feel weightless - it was simply his power. 

Once the former head figured out that Daichi and Suga met before, he paired them together temporarily for training. Ever since then, they stuck together. And somehow, Daichi became the head of Karasuno, and appointed Suga as the co-head. Knowing that the gray-haired man had his back, was at his side whenever he needed him, made his job a hell of a lot easier.

The thought calmed him. The next few weeks - no, months - would be quite a trial. Training four new members, dealing with Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa, making sure Hinata or Kageyama didn’t get kidnapped, their new _situation_ with Nekoma - it wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, it would be the hardest thing Daichi would do. But he had Karasuno, Suga, and Sendai around him.

The train slid to a stop before Daichi realized they were slowing down. _Strange. The train ride here usually takes a lot longer._

They strolled out of the station, and found the Date Tech building immediately. It blended in with the tall building surrounding it, but Daichi recognized it’s almost windowless exterior right away. The last time he’d been here, Hinata called it an ‘iron wall’ of sorts. The was the right word to describe it - although from the outside, you couldn’t tell what was going on inside, it gave off a cold and unwelcoming aura. Just like the employees inside.

He grumbled, swiping his card at the front door. It beeped red - “Access denied,” The robotic voice screeched, the unnatural sound scraping against his ears.

Of course. Even though Date Tech wasn’t short on funds, they still hadn’t fixed their front door security. It’s been two years since it broke - Daichi was compelled to fix it himself, or rip it right off the wall.

He slammed a fist against the door. Nothing. He kicked the door. Nothing.

“Well shit.” He muttered, taking a step back. Daichi _could_ just call the front desk, but they always put him on hold for five minutes. He knew damn well that their line wasn’t that full. He was pretty sure he had one of the employee’s numbers, but they would probably just open the door with their own card to prove that there’s nothing wrong with the door. 

Daichi dug around in his pockets, hoping that he somehow brought a lockpick. Even if he had, he doubted that this door’s lock was pickable. 

“Can I try?” Kageyama asked, stepping forward.

Daichi raised an eyebrow, handing his card over. “Sure, but it isn’t going to work. It hasn’t for two years now.”

Kageyama stared at the card for a moment, flipping it over. Then he swiped the card over the reader, just the same as Daichi. There was a pregnant pause, and then a green light flashed. 

“Access allowed.” The same screechy, robotic voice sounded, and Kageyama handed Daichi his card back.

Before Daichi had the chance to marvel at how Kageyama finally got his card to work, or get pissed because _how the hell did_ he _get access so easily, and not me,_ the door slid open, revealing a smug Futakuchi. 

Futakuchi was always smug, now more than ever. “Oh, it’s you, Sawamura.” His eyes flitted to Kageyama beside him. “A new recruit already? He looks young - getting desperate for more hands, huh?”

 _Yes, but that isn’t the point, shithead,_ Daichi cursed Futakuchi out in his mind before forcing a smile up at him. Everyone at Date Tech was too damn tall. “Nice to see you as always, Futakuchi. Still working the desk? If you could direct me to Moniwa or Kamasaki, that would be great.”

Futakuchi snorted and crossed his arms across his broad chest. He flicked his side-swept brown hair back with a jerk of his head and smirked. “Moniwa and Kamasaki were transferred to another branch a week ago.”

That wasn’t good news. The two now former bosses of Date Tech were the most bearable people in the building. Whoever he had to deal with now would most certainly be worse. He just hoped it wasn’t - no, it couldn’t be.

“Okay, then point me to the new boss.” Daichi started to get impatient. He still had a long list of things to do today, and he couldn’t spend his time arguing with Futakuchi. 

“You’re looking at him, Sawamura.” 

The day was officially ruined. The next two hours were spent with Futakuchi, the new boss of Date Tech. At the end of it, Daichi promised that he wasn’t admitting any more people into Karasuno until Futakuchi died. Hopefully that would be sooner than later.

  


________________

  


Kageyama walked out of the Date Tech building at noon, officially a Karasuno Agency member. He didn’t feel any different. If anything, he was a little bored at having to sit in an office for two hours while Daichi and Futakuchi glared at each other. He was hungry too - Suga only made him a few french toasts, and Hinata managed to snatch all of the extra ones.

“You know, your power reminds me of someone else’s.” Daichi said suddenly as they made their way back to Karasuno. He noticed that Daichi talked a lot less than Suga - he talked a lot more like a leader. Comforting, but still commanding. “The head of Aoba Johsai, one of the groups around here. Oikawa - hopefully you’ll never have to meet him. He’s an ass, and is good at what he does.” Daichi said that with a scowl on his face.

 _Oikawa - it can’t be - no, not the same one._ It was impossible. There were surely other Oikawa’s in Miyagi. There was no way the third year on his middle school volleyball team was the head of a gang. “What’s his power?”

“He has the power to increase the power level of others around him. Like amplifying, rather than muting them. Alone, he doesn’t have a power, but he’s still a great fighter. Unfortunately.” Daichi frowned, deep in thought. “Your power would be a decent match against his, but my advice is to run if you see him around. I think we have a picture back in the database.”

Kageyama couldn’t help himself - he had to know. “What’s his first name?” 

“Tooru. Why?”

His eyebrows drew together. Oikawa Tooru - Kageyama could picture him clearly in his mind, in the dark blue and white uniform as he crouched close to the volleyball net, hands overhead. Or standing over him, hand raised in anger. Or the final words Oikawa told Kageyama - “You can stay playing volleyball for the rest of your life - I’m destined for better things.”

It was him. Oikawa Tooru, the boy he’d once watched from the sidelines of the court, was operating a gang in Sendai. 

“I think I know him.”

  


__________________

  
  


“Oikawa, get down from there.” 

Oikawa perched on the edge of a fire escape, peering down ten stories. Sendai was spread out below him, the city humming and buzzing as it always did. The sun was gone hours ago, leaving only a dim moonlight to shine through the clouds. 

“Shittykawa, get your ass down from there or else -”

“Okay, okay.” Oikawa pouted before swinging his legs off of the railing, feet landing flat against the grating. “You’re such a buzzkill, Iwa-chan. I wasn’t going to _actually_ jump off.” He’d been debating it, but wasn’t so cruel as to make Iwaizumi watch him. If Iwaizumi left him alone for one minute, maybe he would get the chance. Unfortunately, the man seemed to be glued to his side at all times.

Iwaizumi sat on the stairs next to him, arms spread out on the stair above him. There was something almost translucent about him, but Oikawa reminded himself that Iwaizumi was there, solid and opaque. Well, as solid as he could get. 

Oikawa wrapped his arms around his torso, leaning against the fire escape railing. The nights in Sendai were getting cooler, and the cold always brought new problems. 

His current problem was the newbie in Karasuno. Not just any newbie, Kageyama Tobio.

“Don’t tell me you’re actually stressed about Tobio.” Oikawa didn’t respond. “Really?”

“I’m not.” Oikawa whined. A gust of wind ruffled his shirt, and he felt the instinct to move closer to Iwaizumi. He held himself back, digging his arms into the ice-cold railing. “I just wasn’t expecting him to, you know, have an _ability._ Or be in Sendai, for that matter.”

As soon as Oikawa got a notification that Date Tech registered a new person, and realized it was Tobio from middle school, he researched Kageyama’s last three years. Apparently, he was accepted into a college because of his volleyball skills, but wasn’t on the starting line because he ‘didn’t work well with his teammates.’ It was ridiculous - Oikawa knew that Kageyama was bad when it came to socializing, but he would never sacrifice a spot on a team to avoid communication. At least, that was how it was when he was a first year.

Not like Oikawa was cheering Kageyama on, anyway. He couldn’t care less if he quit volleyball or joined the V. League at seventeen. But in the back of his mind, he always thought that Kageyama would end up better than Oikawa at setting - he was on that path when Oikawa left middle school. He wondered what led to his downfall. 

“Wait, I really hope you don’t plan to _talk_ to him. Let’s just leave him alone.” Iwaizumi frowned at Oikawa.

“I wasn’t even thinking about it.” Oikawa lied, grinning at his friend. He was half-way through a plan of finding where Karasuno actually was, since no one knew, and waiting outside their doors until Kageyama walked out. It would be nice to give him a good scare after all these years. “He has a fitting power, huh, Iwa-chan?”

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes, standing up from the stairs. “Let’s get home. You haven’t been sleeping well, I can tell.” He lifted his arms to stretch, and Oikawa noticed an angry red dot on his lower stomach, where his shirt rode up.

Oikawa hasn’t been sleeping well since January, and he knew Iwaizumi knew why. 

  



End file.
